What is your name? 

魏姿芸, Tzuyun Wei. 

Where are you from? 

I'm from Taiwan. 

Where do you live now? 

I live in Brooklyn, New York.

What is the meaning behind your name? 

So 姿 means 姿态. It means the posture of or the body of a person. And also related to the vibe of that person, how they walk or how they stand as a person. And another word is 芸, means growing grass. So in Mandarin characters, the 芸 has a grass part in the character. And under the grass, there is a cloud, also another part of the character. So the grass plus the clouds means the greenness is growing. And it also means the very vibrant energy of life.

How did you get your name? 

I got my name through my parents. And my mom has a very close fortune teller. In traditional Chinese or Taiwanese culture, we believe that there's five qualities in our life. And each quality has a different simplified symbol, symbolizing different parts of our energy, and how we treat the world and how we relate to the energy surrounding us. So the fortune teller said that in my life, I lack the greenness and the energy of the wood. So that's why he adopted the 芸 into my name. And also, the whole naming system in Daoism, it depends on how many writing numbers you have. So in total, my name, for example, has 36 writing steps, and the number will symbolize their specific meaning in the belief. So, that's how they count my name and give me the naming based on the energy and the meaning of the belief. 

Has your name changed since you moved to a new space? 

Not really. But I changed my nickname, though, I changed my nickname based on my mood and who I'm hanging out with. For example, when I'm in college in Taiwan, everyone calls me Bushwa. And that's the nickname, meaning talking nonsense. And so the reason why I have the Bushwa as my nickname, is because I feel like I just like it. So I just take it. After a while, people just call me Bush for easy pronunciation, and it's short and quick. But then after I came to Brooklyn, I found out Bush is kind of awkward, because it's easily related to the vaginal place in feminine body. And I don't know why I feel awkward about it. And then I changed my nickname to Tzu. So that's related to my original name. 

How many nicknames do you have? 

Yeah, Bushwa, bush, Tzu in Mandarin and 小白. 小白 is like my most early nickname, in secondary school. And in my family, my mom always calls me 妹妹, because I'm like the second kid in the family. And it means sister, little sister in Mandarin.

How do you navigate your daily life with your name, especially with where you live? 

I feel like I just use Tzu because I feel like even though some people find it hard to pronounce it, but I feel like it's short and simple and easy to memorize. So I just use that mostly for functionality, not really for meaning.

Do you resonate with your given name?

I think I resonate with it, especially the part where it means growing greenish. I feel like that's kind of resonating with how I facilitate myself as an organizer, or a really community person. 

I feel like as a community people are like organizers, you need to have energy when you're socializing with other people that provide, like supporting a vibe with each other. And that resonates with grass, you're not the flower, you're just the grass, but grass is also very important for the landscape, right? Imagine there's no grass, there will be no flower too, right? So yeah, it's kind of connected. Yeah, it's connected to the concept of a community, and about helping each other, and then having the flower to grow safely. So yeah, the green is resonating with me right now. 

How do you name yourself in the digital world?

I use Bushwa, because Bushwa is like my earliest name I established at Instagram, and also my drawing account on Instagram. And that's also how other people connected with me in the digital world. They will message me with the name Bushwa, and then find out, okay, I can call you Tzu too. 

Do you like your digital name? 

People kind of like it. And my Taiwanese friends, some of them uses Mandarin to pronounce my digital name. Yeah, it's okay for me.

Is there a difference between naming your digital self in the Western social media rather than Eastern ones? 

I feel like I can put it this way, that right now, I feel like Bushwa is more like the drawing side of me, like drawing children inside of me. But Tzu, it's more like an organizer, or as a facilitator, as a real human being. And Tzu, for me, it's more fluid, I could say, because with this identity, I can do many things. And it's also including what Bushwa can do. There's also an interesting story that is actually, inside Bushwa. There's also a character that's called Johnny, and Johnny is a character that appeared in 2019. I started to draw Johnny in my diary books. And he's also always wearing a hat. And he's really shy and hard to open up with people outside. But then Johnny started disappearing like 2021 and 2022. And I never draw them again. And I feel like it is also related to how Tzu appears. And I feel like Tzu is more like embracing the side of me as a human as a spirit. And Johnny is like inside Bushwa, Bushwa just him outside of me, and presented outside of the world. And then with time, Johnny can go away. But Tzu is like a whole universe to me. So yeah. I really like that. But I never use Johnny.

Would you still choose to go by either Bushwa or Tzu, if you would do it again? 

I think I will choose to stick with my original name, especially the Mandarin one, because the visibility of my Mandarin name right now is like, not really that clear in, in my career or in my professional field. So I feel like yeah, I can stick with my original name and also do it in both languages. So it can expand more in my future. 

Do you think about your name at all when you're exploring the digital space? 

Not really. I think I only think about my work, my name only when I'm putting onto something else I produce, or I make. And then I will think about, okay, right now, okay, for example, I'm doing a drawing. And then what kind of name should I use? Is that for a Bushwa? Depends on what I make, and how they relate to different aspects inside of me, and then I can decide.