Reflections | North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has enforced a name taboo as Chinese emperors once did. Chinese culture has other taboo words – but they’re not illegal

Kim Jong-un has forced North Koreans with the same name as his daughter Ju-ae to change theirs, a practice reminiscent of imperial China

Chinese culture still has taboo words, such as unlucky numbers, that shape how people speak and write. The difference is that their use isn’t outlawed

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is making people with the same name as his daughter Ju-ae (left) to change theirs, as Chinese emperors once did. Chinese culture still has taboo words, but their use isn’t outlawed. Photo: Reuters

Wee Kek Koon

Published: 11:50am, 14 Feb 2023Updated: 4:27pm, 14 Feb 2023

The Post reported that North Korea is forcing people who have the same name as leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Ju-ae, to change their name. There is speculation that Kim is grooming his daughter, recently seen at high-profile public events, to be his successor.

No other details have emerged from the highly secretive country regarding the name change. Does it affect only names with identical hanja (Chinese characters), or all names spelled with the same hangul, the Korean phonetic alphabet? Do most North Koreans even use hanja for their names any more? We simply do not know.

The name-change directive represents another similarity between Kim Jong-un’s regime and the feudal monarchies of centuries past; decreeing name changes in the general population to avoid name taboos is exactly what rulers in East Asia used to do.

Like so many aspects of culture and politics in East Asia, the concept of name taboos originated in China, where it is known as bihui. There were several categories of bihui in China in ancient times, but the one that caused the most inconvenience was to do with the names of emperors.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right), with his wife Ri Sol-ju (left) and their daughter Kim Ju-ae (centre) at a banquet to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, in North Korea. Photo: Reuters

Parents were forbidden from giving their newborn children names that contained any of the characters in the emperor’s name. When a new emperor ascended to the throne, his (or her) name became taboo, and those whose names contained any characters included in the name had to change their names. Thankfully, the imperial surname was not taboo.

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