After nearly two decades of ridicule, a Vietnamese father has agreed to change his son’s name from ”Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred” — the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam’s two-child policy.
Angry he was being fined for having a fifth child, Mai Xuan Can in 1987 named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi after the amount he was forced to pay — 6 500 dong ($0,50), said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.
In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because classmates constantly teased the boy at school in central Quang Nam province.
But Can, a former People’s Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said.
They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.
”I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name, not that weird name, and he finally agreed,” Thuong said.
The son, now 19, is now Mai Hoang Long, which means ”Golden Dragon”.
Vietnam, with a population of 83-million, applied tight family-planning measures until recently to keep couples from having more than two children. Breaking the rules could have resulted in punishment. Today’s policy is less stringent, though the government continues to encourage small families. — Sapa-AP