At least in Taiwan, calling people Ah-whatever isn't just a family or servants thing, it's just a sort of nicknamey, familiar way of calling someone, including friends, friendly classmates, friendly neighbors, etc. Hell, people used to call Chen Shui Bian (a former president) "Ah Bian". Obviously you would not address a president that way, but it's like saying "Dubya" to refer to the second Bush or whatever (sorry, that's the first nicknamed English-language-country president I could think of).
Choosing a different name upon adulthood isn't a universal thing among Chinese speakers, which is as sensical as anything else given the vast number of Chinese speakers in various cultural niches. None of my family have ever done or referred to such a thing (again: Taiwanese; we're not that much in touch with the mainlanders on my yeye's side).
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At least in Taiwan, calling people Ah-whatever isn't just a family or servants thing, it's just a sort of nicknamey, familiar way of calling someone, including friends, friendly classmates, friendly neighbors, etc. Hell, people used to call Chen Shui Bian (a former president) "Ah Bian". Obviously you would not address a president that way, but it's like saying "Dubya" to refer to the second Bush or whatever (sorry, that's the first nicknamed English-language-country president I could think of).
Choosing a different name upon adulthood isn't a universal thing among Chinese speakers, which is as sensical as anything else given the vast number of Chinese speakers in various cultural niches. None of my family have ever done or referred to such a thing (again: Taiwanese; we're not that much in touch with the mainlanders on my yeye's side).
Just don't Firefly it :P