Misha Ge

[ice coverage]

Good detective work! Really find it exasperating that folks writing stories don't do the legwork to ensure that they have the correct legal spelling.

In this case, I give Simonenko the benefit of the doubt that he made a point of using Джи to highlight the Chinese pronunciation used by Misha and others outside of Russia.
Esp. because Simonenko did use Ге in last month's article and because Simonenko was so interested in the dual pronunciations that he started the interview by querying Misha about them.
YMMV.

ETA:

I wasn't going so far as to say that Ге is the legal spelling in Russia (b/c I do not feel sure either way), although it clearly is widely accepted in Russia.
Unless Misha has a passport from Russia (does he??) as well as Uzbekistan, would any particular Cyrillic spelling be considered "legal" in Russia?
Anyway, I am not upset to see Джи in print. It's the whole Yulia/Julia Lipnitskaya/Lipnitskaia can of worms. Going by her own Instagram, one could argue that she prefers Julia. But her VK says Yulia (in Roman letters).

https://www.instagram.com/sunnylipnitskaya/
https://vk.com/id69994512​

 

[TGee]

In this case, I give Simonenko the benefit of the doubt that he made a point of using Джи to highlight the Chinese pronunciation used by Misha and others outside of Russia.
Esp. because Simonenko did use Ге in last month's article and because Simonenko was so interested in the dual pronunciations that he started the interview by querying Misha about them.
YMMV.

Uhm... so it sounds as though his Russian legal name is the poor transcription...Thanks again...

And I can see how fraught the transcription Mandarin to Russian would be. The direct Palladian transcription system gives some unexpected results.

But going through a Pinyin latinization and then to Cyrillic could be worse, and that is what looks to have happened... except in that case Ge would be written as Гэ.

Pinyin latinizations imbed very different phonetics than the Cyrillic ones so there is real risk in assuming that Pinyin and Cyrillic transcription systems are giving the same phonemic value to a given lating letter....eg. when ж gets transliterated, it 'zh' is most often the way it appears, but the sound as I noted below, is absolutely not the sound that 'zh' represents in Pinyin.

 

[ice coverage]

Uhm... so it sounds as though his Russian legal name is the poor transcription...Thanks again....

That's not what I was saying.
I am not a lawyer, so I am very unclear on what a "legal" name even would be in a country where one does not have citizenship.

Putting Misha aside:
I am a U.S. citizen (of Asian descent) who once had a Russian visa.
My rhetorical question would be: Does the Cyrillic spelling (not originating from me) of my name on the visa mean that the Russian government would consider it my de facto "legal" name in Russia??

(Rhetorical b/c it is time for me to let this discussion to carry on without me.)

 

[TGee]

That's not what I was saying.
I am not a lawyer, so I am very unclear on what a "legal" name even would be in a country where one does not have citizenship.

Putting Misha aside:
I am a U.S. citizen (of Asian descent) who once had a Russian visa.
My rhetorical question would be: Does the Cyrillic spelling (not originating from me) of my name on the visa mean that it has become my de facto "legal" name in Russia??

(Rhetorical b/c it is time for me to let this discussion to carry on without me.)

Misha's place of birth is listed as Moscow in his ISU bio. So that's where my thinking is coming from. His birth certificate in Russia which defines his legal name would have been written in Cyrillic not the latin alphabet or Chinese.

In terms your personal question of a visa, yes it's your legal name in Russia for the duration of your visit. The visa stamp in Russian in your passport had better have a good transcription as that is what, if you are involved in a legal process while in Russia, the courts will consider your legal name in Russian. Any documentation you submit to a court must have the same spelling in Cyrillic. If you have a child while there, it will determine the child's family name and patryonymic [in the case of the father]. And if you want it to be written differently, a judge may need to make a decision to permit that for the process in question.

My understanding is that you really need to tell the person who is doing the translation for your visa application how you want your name to appear in order to get it right, and not just leave it to chance. The Russian government has its own standardized transcription system that goes from Cyrillic to latin characters for the purpose of Russian passports [and which changes over the years]. But foreigners can choose how their names can be put into Cyrillic within the bounds of a reasonable transcription system. But once the choice is made, whether consciously or by default, the usage needs to be consistent.

And the same thing goes in the other direction. Russians coming to Canada on a work or immigration visa need to ensure that the latinization is the one that they want. Once it is established in immigration papers, it becomes the basis for future residency and citizenship documents, and in the legal name in Canada.

e.g. Marina Zoueva is legally that. Not Zueva. She immigrated to Canada using that transcription, that is how her citizenship was granted, and presumably since she posts it on the Canton website that way, how her US immigration paperwork names her and her coaching credentials in the USFSA are written. I cannot get over how the ISU just does what it wants on this. I can see her getting invitations with Zueva written on them for ISU events, and then having to hassle to explain why the invitation doesn't match the name Zoueva as written on her passport [unless she is travelling on her Russian one...].

 

[Violet Bliss]

I don't know Russian but know a little about the history of Misha's name. Ge should be pronounced with a k resonance.

Find the explanation, with a video, on page 4 of this thread.

Basically, Ge is from what the west calls Gobi. Sha (sand) is from shamo (desert). Ganddaddy's name is Ge Sha, a short for Gobi Desert and Misha's name has a mi in between. Of course Misha has its origin in Russian.

 

[TGee]

I don't know Russian but know a little about the history of Misha's name. Ge should be pronounced with a k resonance.

Find the explanation, with a video, on page 4 of this thread.

Basically, Ge is from what the west calls Gobi. Sha (sand) is from shamo (desert). Ganddaddy's name is Ge Sha, a short for Gobi Desert and Misha's name has a mi in between. Of course Misha has its origin in Russian.

Cool!

Thanks for helping on the Chinese side VB.

I'd wondered if it might be the 'k' sound...

Not much out there that's accessible on Cyrillization of Chinese....here's a wikipedia entry...not a lot of back up cited...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillization_of_Chinese

 

[ice coverage]

Misha's place of birth is listed as Moscow in his ISU bio. So that's where my thinking is coming from. His birth certificate in Russia which defines his legal name would have been written in Cyrillic not the latin alphabet or Chinese....

Duhhh .... had forgotten :hopelessness: that Misha was born in Russia ... and that the Russian gov't would have his name (a name with legal status) on record for that reason.
Thx for the reminder, and thx for your whole post.

Anyway, whether Misha's legal name is Ге or Джи (and I do not claim to know which it is), the Simonenko usage of Джи does not upset me (for the reasons in my earlier post). Nor does Ге.
(Based on Sugarpova's pronouncer reference to "lemon", I too have been wondering why not Гэ to represent that pronunciation. So Гэ would not upset me either.)

And now I really, really will try to keep other thoughts on this discussion to myself .

 

[LRK]

Misha Ge ‏@mishageofficial Jan 13
During my travel around the world a lot of people asked me "Misha how you manage to do… https://www.instagram.com/p/BPNTeFXBZbW/

 

[Yatagarasu]

Misha might be retiring:

mishage8"Letter" It is a long run that me and my family had run around the globe, through many difficulties : for training, conditions, competitions and future opportunities. Lots of time you and your family have to give up a lot of things and a lot of other opportunities. Im so appreciated for all the things we been through and for all the things we have today. So let's appreciate it even more, the things we having right now. Because this season competitions, might, (might*) be my last one. #WorkItTillYourMax #ForTheFuture

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPqP_aMBpHS/

 

[liv]

Not news I wanted to hear. I hope he can go to the Olympics one last time, and experience that great event one last time because it is such a rare thing to take part in. That being said, if he retires then obviously that is the decision that was right for him and I will respect that. I am glad I was able to see in person his fantastic Standing O worthy long program at Skate Canada. I will never forget that.

 

[gladiolusc]

I'll miss seeing him in competition, he's such a performer OTOH, he's thoughtful, so I think he will make the right decision for himself. He, especially, already contributes to the field in so many different ways. I have no doubt we'll be seeing him in shows, in programs he choreographed, and more. I hope he makes Athletes Commission

 

[Meoima]

I really hope he can make it to Olympic.

 

[YuzusHydroblade]

Emerging from the depths of the Hanyu fanfest i just came here to say how sad i was when i read that he might be retiring I love watching his performances, they always put a smile on my face...
I am going to really miss him but i guess he has his own reasons to make that decision. Either way i'll keep on supporting him :sad21:

 

[Sugarpova]

Misha might be retiring:


https://www.instagram.com/p/BPqP_aMBpHS/

ugh hopefully he can make it to Olys!

will miss our dear Misha immensely!!:sad21::sad21::sad4:

 

[MGstyle]

Misha arrived in Vancouver yesterday, and the reason obviously is to work with Kevin Reynolds. Now that's an exciting news!
No name mentioned, yet the hair is unmistakable!

 

[Arriba627]

I enjoyed the article on Misha in the latest International Figure Skating Magazine. I don't follow him really closely, so please forgive if this is all really old news at this point! Here are just a few "snippets":

Ge was the creative force behind Gracie Gold's gala number, and the short and gala programs that Anna Pogorilaya is performing this season. He now gets so many requests for choreography that he has had to turn some people away. "I have eight to 10 different requests to do programs, but I don't have enough time," he explained. "Elena Radionova asked me to do her gala program, but I had to say sorry, I don't have time."

Designing programs depends on the level of the skater and what their team requires, Ge said. "Some people say: 'We want a gala program in three days.' Yeah. No problem. Maybe in two days we can finish it. But if you want a short or long program for the Grand Prix or World Championship level...for example, with Anna's short program, we started working on it two weeks after the Worlds Championships ended. It was two months of thinking music, thinking style. And then we did probably five days a week. I try to put more heart in it to do little by little."

He talked about how his mom graduated from a music high school, and a sports and dance university. His grandfather is a painter and a ballroom dancer, and his father was into ballet and dancing. So he had a lot of artistic influences in his family.

Mishin is also an influence on his craft. He has known him since 2004...This year Misha helped organize a summer camp for the Chinese national team and did a summer camp for 70 Chinese coaches and the Chinese national team.

 

[MGstyle]

Recently Misha expressed his reflection which also hinted that this may be his last competitive season on Instagram. While it upset me no end, because I so want to keep seeing him and his wonderful personality on ice during competitions, he is one of the brightest stars of the skating world for me... but realistically speaking, this may be a wise decision. He is struggling to get one quad in a program, while the top contenders are succeeding in 3,4 or even 5 of them. It is not worth killing himself for a mission impossible, when the other door is opening for him and promises him a great career from a different perspective yet still staying in the skating world.
He hasn't said anything definitive yet, and it would be heartwrenchingly sad for me to see him leave the competitive scene, but most of all I wish him well and whatever the best for him. I just hope we will still keep seeing his skating in some shows, he will be equally great at that.

 

[Plumededragon]

Recently Misha expressed his reflection which also hinted that this may be his last competitive season on Instagram. While it upset me no end, because I so want to keep seeing him and his wonderful personality on ice during competitions, he is one of the brightest stars of the skating world for me... but realistically speaking, this may be a wise decision. He is struggling to get one quad in a program, while the top contenders are succeeding in 3,4 or even 5 of them. It is not worth killing himself for a mission impossible, when the other door is opening for him and promises him a great career from a different perspective yet still staying in the skating world.
He hasn't said anything definitive yet, and it would be heartwrenchingly sad for me to see him leave the competitive scene, but most of all I wish him well and whatever the best for him. I just hope we will still keep seeing his skating in some shows, he will be equally great at that.

If he does retire, I really hope he'll do lot of shows, especially in Japan. For sure, he can have a good job as a choreographer, since he already has several top skaters coming to him in both junior and senior! But I hope he won't think of really retiring before Olympics. After 2018, I'd understand (there's quite a lot of skaters who will retire) but the season before it? I really hope not.

 

[MGstyle]

Indeed, retiring after 2018 O would be the most expected decision, and he did express his intention to aim for it until not so long ago. It may have just been a fleeting fancy, about hanging up the competitive boots after this season, but it would be sort of strange to blurt out such a thing in public if he wasn't thinking of it seriously.
My sentiment is totally torn. His ankle has been hurting since last year. I would like to tell him enough of this, it is time for a new beginning... but a part of me long to see him more and more of him in competitions.
I would also hope he will come to do some shows in Europe too, I know he always had problems with visas, but recently he did a couple of shows in Germany and Slovakia with very short notice. Maybe something has changed in positive direction. I must remain optimistic

 

[Arriba627]

Seems that when he makes the decision to retire from competitive skating, he will have many people wanting to use him as their choreographer. I'm glad he will continue his connection to the sport.