HeadhonchoII: Well, I heard that was not the nickname he chose, but that when he first started appearing on TV here 10 years ago, the local media or maybe his sidekicks like Jacky Wu, started calling him CHocolate as a nickname. They thought it was funny! You know, black man, dark skin, looks like chocolate color, so the name was coined and it stuck.
I don’t know if Chocolate likes it, but it’s his stage name now for better or worse. I think he doesn’t mind. Most Taiwanese use it in a friendly kind way, when talking about him, everyone seems to know him, and no racism in intended. But it is a bit of a racist word, no?
This is Taiwan. But I think his real name is Charles Mack, III. He could be asked to be called something like “Char-Ulsu Ma Koo” in Mandarin, why not?
Because it is hard for Chinese people to remember Western names, just like it is hard for Western people to remember Chinese names. Also, Western surnames are harder for Chinese people to remember, because in the West there are many different surnames and fewer likely given names, which is the opposite situation to China. If you keep the name short, there is a better chance of people remembering it. Now I remember that one of the things DJ Chocolate and I have in common is precisely the name Chocolate, but only Cantonese people call me that. It’s a pun on my Chinese name that is only funny in Cantonese. If I ever get famous, Cantonese people will call me Chocolate, but Mandarin speakers will probably go by my skin colour and call me Vanilla or maybe Raspberry, or maybe by one of my other Chinese nicknames, Da Huzi Shushu (Uncle Bigbeard). Someone from Sierra Leone used to call me that - in Chinese!!! My ex-girlfriend or rather wannabe girlfriend (I wanted her to be…) who is Cantonese always had difficulty pronouncing my name “Jules,” so she settled on “Juice.” She has recently adopted the rather strange English name of “Change.” Since she is not very tall, I will call her “Small Change.” My present girlfriend calls me “Pig.”