Person reference forms

My surname is Lai 黎 (jyutping: lai4 / IPA [lɐi̯˨˩], pīnyīn: lí), and my given name is Ka Yau 嘉祐 (jyutping: gaa1jau6 / IPA [kaː˥ jɐu̯˨], pīnyīn: Jiāyòu). When citing, please use Lai as my surname, e.g. Lai (2024) for my paper on Literary Chinese zì. In English-speaking environments, the Anglicised pronounciations [laɪ] and [kɑ jaʊ] are fine, as are phonological adaptations in other non-Chinese languages.

Like most Hongkongers, I have an English name originally used for English classes (in my case, it was assigned by an English teacher), ‘Ryan’. I generally go by Ryan outside the Sinosphere. If you address me by my Chinese name, please note that I will prefer my full name to be used (as simply my given name, Ka Yau, is mostly used in relatively intimate relationships). I use both Ryan and Ka Yau when publishing; so a publication with only Ryan is most likely not me.

I use he/him pronouns in English, and masculine pronouns generally in all languages (他 in Standard Written Chinese, él in Spanish, il in French, 彼 in Japanese, ཁོ་ in Tibetan, etc.), although gender-neutral pronouns are fine.