SINGAPORE – Actor Chen Yixi, the son of celebrity couple Xiang Yun and Edmund Chen, is reverting to his birth name of Chen Xi.
His parents had changed his name for fengshui reasons when he was nine years old.
Now 30, he said: “”I just really want people to know me as Chen Xi and I think it’s a nicer name. But ultimately, it’s about going back to my roots and appreciating the name that my dad gave me.”
He spoke to entertainment portal 8days.sg on Wednesday (Nov 3) about the name change, adding that Yixi and Yixin, which is his younger sister’s name, sounded too alike and often led to confusion.
“When I entered showbusiness, many veteran actors who knew me as Chen Xi since I was young needed some time to get used to it. Some of them still called me Chen Xi, and then occasionally I would be called Yixin,” he said.
“Chen xi means ‘dawn’ in Chinese, so my name Chen Xi is actually a pun that represents the rising morning sun, which I feel resonates better with me as an artiste,” added the actor, who is currently in Channel 5’s sci-fi series Nightwatchers. “It can also mean ‘first sun’, and to my parents, I am their first son, so it’s actually quite poetic.”
When he started acting in 2012, he considered using his birth name but was worried about switching back as the name Yixi had come from a fengshui master.
Now, he has no such qualms, saying: “I was more superstitious back then, but now I’m like, just work hard.”
