Sanmao’s English name Echo was given by Sanmao after reading the story of the Greek forest goddess Echo and Narcissus.

Echo is a forest goddess who fell in love with the beautiful boy Narcissus, but she was punished by Hera so that she could only repeat the last three words of other people's words. One day Narcissus passed by Echo's forest, and Echo followed him silently. He felt it and asked: "Who is following me?"

Echo could only say "Follow me, follow me"; Narcissus could only say "Follow me, follow me"; Narcissus said "please don't possess me like this", Echo could only repeat "possess me, possess me", so Narcissus concluded that Echo was a frivolous woman. As for Narcissus later falling in love with his reflection in the water and starving to death, that is a story for another day. ?

After reading this story, Sanmao wrote: Love, just like the explanation in Buddhism, cannot be said, it cannot be said, and it is completely wrong to say it. And named his English name Echo.

Extended information

The origin of Sanmao’s pen name:

The first theory is that Sanmao first came to the mainland in 1989 and made a special trip to visit the famous cartoonist Zhang Leping. Chen Maoping said that she grew up reading the Sanmao comic series, and these paintings brought her joy in her childhood. I was lucky enough to meet my idol this time, and the two met happily. Zhang Leping recognized Chen Maoping as his goddaughter, and from then on "Sanmao" became his goddaughter's pseudonym.

The second theory is that Chen Maoping once again contributed to the Taiwanese newspaper "United Daily News" 10 years after he stopped writing. When writing the manuscript, she didn't know what pen name to use. After thinking about it for a long time, I realized that I was just a nobody, so I just called him "Sanmao".

When explaining the meaning of "three hairs" to his lover Jose, the Spaniard understood it and drew a portrait of a person with three hairs on his head on the spot and said: "Is this what 'three hairs' means?" ?" Chen Maoping said hurriedly, "Yes." Hexi joked, "This is my trademark!" Hexi loved Maoping very much and thought that he was an ordinary person and his lover had to lower his stature. Marry him.