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DEL.ICIO.USWhat’s in a name? Funny you should ask
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You could say that Mei Lan, Zoo Atlanta’s baby panda cub, is one in a million. You’d be wrong, too.
Technically, the tiny growler growing under her mama’s protective gaze is two in a million. Another panda, a bruiser from Chicago, had the name Mei Lan first.
“I felt like the girl who comes to the party and sees another girl there wearing the same dress” when he discovered the cub had a used name, said Dennis Kelly, Zoo Atlanta’s president and executive director.
In 1938, a young panda with big ears, a short fuse and sharp teeth debuted at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago’s suburbs. His name — it was a he, though zoo officials thought otherwise — was Mei Lan. Translated loosely, the name meant “lovely flower.” (Zoo Atlanta officials say their Mei Lan’s name means something else. More on that in a bit.)
History shows that never has a panda been so poorly named. The first Mei Lan was more livid than lovely, more Venus Flytrap than flower.
“He was always snapping at people,” said former Brookfield Zoo employee Ralph Small.
Small, 85, would know. In 1946, Small, while working as a relief keeper at the panda exhibit, looked away from Mei Lan at just the wrong time. The panda shoved a sneaky snout through his barred cage and bit off Small’s right hand. “He left scars all up my arm, too,” said Small.
Was he left-handed when Mei Lan bit him? “Well,” said Small, “I am now.”
Some folks would have damned pandas for all time, but not Small. He stayed at the zoo, retiring in 1983 to Arizona. Mei Lan remained at Brookfield until he died in 1953. To the end, the bear with the pretty name remained as mean as a Chicago winter. When he died, his name passed into history — but not forever.
In December, Zoo Atlanta unveiled the name of its baby giant panda in a ceremony marking the 100th day of the cub’s Sept. 6 birth. Online voters from around the world had chosen one name from among 10 candidates — Mei Lan.
The name, Kelly said amid cheers and music, meant “Atlanta Beauty.”
How can one name have two translations? Yinping Yu, the zoo’s conservation biologist and a native of China, traces the discrepancy to the passage of time. As more Westerners have visited China, and vice-versa, words that meant one thing have come to signify new meanings, he said.
Translated: “Lan” has become synonymous with Atlanta. “Mei” still means “beauty.”
OK, but what about that name? That other panda just about wore it out, didn’t he?
Kelly, who learned about the first Mei Lan not long after the naming ceremony, says no. The moniker, like the cub, has plenty of life in it, he said.
“She is gorgeous,” Kelly said. “She is, in my heart, and in the rest of Atlanta’s, what her name implies — an Atlanta beauty.”
Small, whose prosthesis is a daily reminder of his close encounter with Mei Lan I, agreed — to a point.
“They’re cute,” he said. “But they can be dangerous, too.”
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Comments
By susie
February 2, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this
another great article Mark!
By Laura
February 2, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
I love Mei Lan!!
By Phyl
February 2, 2007 01:08 PM | Link to this
Wonderful, informative article, Mark! Thanks…as always.
By dobby
February 2, 2007 01:31 PM | Link to this
Mark’s articles make Mei Lan more cute. I enjoy them a lot and read each one several times.
By Elaine
February 6, 2007 12:11 PM | Link to this
Mei Lan is beautiful, I have to sneak a peek at her everyday. I Love her. She is so funny and playful.
By GMC
February 6, 2007 02:40 PM | Link to this
I sneak a peek now and then too, hoping that Mei Lan and Lun Lun happen to be in the camera’s eye. Because they now aim the camera on one spot for extended periods, the playful pair are only seen occasionally during Panda Cam hours. But those rare occasions are highly entertaining.
By bps
February 6, 2007 05:25 PM | Link to this
Wow that is great… more proof that the Zoo really doesn’t know what the’re doing… most places would research a name first! There is a neat little tool out there to make sure that you don’t have something like this happen it is called the internet (a simple search under Panda and the name could have avoided this problem - try it!). They may want to budget in some common sense before the move!
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February 12, 2007 09:10 PM | Link to this
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February 12, 2007 09:11 PM | Link to this
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By Mo
February 13, 2007 04:44 PM | Link to this
Looking at the book “The Lady and the Panda” by Vicki Croke, the second panda brought to the Brookfield Zoo by Ruth Harkness in 1938 was called Mei Mei. Did they change his name at some point?
By Akagi
February 14, 2007 02:51 PM | Link to this
And the term Lan (which means orchid) doesn’t really mean Atlanta nor is it synonymous. It is simply one character among the four that form the sound loan for the name Atlanta. Be no different if they named the panda Mei Te or Mei Da and said that meant Atlanta Beauty.
For the curious, Atlanta is Ya Te Lan Da (亞特蘭大) in Chinese.