Shang-Chi's Simu Liu 'would've given anything' to change his name to Steve. Asian Americans relate.

You may have been pronouncing Shang-Chi incorrectly this whole time.

"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (in theaters now) follows Shaun (played by Simu Liu), a seemingly ordinary San Francisco valet who is revealed to have trained during his childhood as an assassin for the infamous Ten Rings army. His double life brings even more surprises when he reveals his name isn't actually Shaun: It's Shang-Chi.

In response, his best friend, Katy (played by Awkwafina), innocently butchers its pronunciation – a frequent experience for those whose names aren't as simple as "Emily" or "John." And to this, Shang-Chi teaches her a clever mnemonic device:

It's "Shaun" with an extra "g." That's it.

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Many Asian Americans can relate to the confusion that comes with having two names: Their Asian one is seen as "too inconvenient," while an "American" one is meant to better suit English speakers.

It took a lot of time and patience for Liu to appreciate his own name, Simu. Growing up, "I would've given anything to change my name to something a little bit more Anglicized," he says. "I gave my parents a lot of crap and asked, 'Why didn't you just name me 'Steve' or 'Tommy?'"

The cost of sacrificing a name is familiar to Michelle Yeoh (playing Shang-Chi's aunt Ying Nan), who fell under social pressure to forgo her Chinese name, Yeoh Choo-Kheng.

"I only adopted the name Michelle when I got into the film industry, because my producer said at the time, ‘No one is going to be able to say your name,'" she says.

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Yeoh knew this was ridiculous: "What do you mean they can't say it? It's Yeoh as in Yo, that’s easy right? Choo as in 'choo choo train' and Kheng as in 'king.' Why can't you put those three words together?"

But still, today the world mostly knows her as Michelle.

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'I'm so happy it's in the movie': Behind that airplane scene

In the movie, Shang-Chi cleverly teaches Katy how to correctly say his name as they fly from California to China on a mission to defeat his father, the leader of the Ten Rings. Despite her many attempts and looks of confusion, the superhero-to-be remains calm and even playful while educating the fellow Asian American.

"I'm so happy it's in the movie," director Destin Daniel Cretton says of the scene. "It's just a really fun way to reveal to an audience that there are multiple ways to pronounce something. There's definitely a Western way and then there's the actual way that a Chinese-speaking audience would pronounce it."

Liu, who is all too familiar with people butchering his real name after catapulting from Netflix's "Kim's Convenience" onto the Marvel stage ("Who would have thought that four letters would be so difficult?"), related to the scene "super hard."

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"It does certainly require a degree of patience when introducing oneself," he says. I never say my Starbucks order without spelling it out: I'll always say, 'Simu. S-I-M-U.' We all know Starbucks baristas are bad enough as it is at spelling normal names correctly, so I figure there's just no chance whatsoever with me."

All jokes aside, Liu acknowledges that the seemingly trivial "Shang-Chi" airplane scene actually holds a deeper lesson: that Asians are not a monolith, as seen by Shang-Chi and Katy – who are both Chinese American yet come from completely different cultural upbringings.

"That speaks to just how multifaceted our community can be, where you have people who are fully bilingual (and) also have people who have maybe lost that connection with their mother tongue or their parents' mother tongue," Liu says.

Asian Americans relate to 'Shang-Chi' moment: 'Like losing your identity'

Many children who grew up with parents emigrating from Asia understand the desire to assimilate into Western culture, and nothing stands out more than a peculiar name.

Nikki Cheng, a 21-year-old Chinese American from Honolulu, says her parents chose her birth name, Yun Huen (pronounced yun hoo-EN), carefully.

Yun is "a representation of the moon" according to the Chinese Lunar calendar, and Huen "came about because I was born on a day that lacks gold (one of the five natural elements), and Huen has gold symbols in it."

"Like most Chinese names, my name does have meaning to who I am and where I come from," Cheng says.

However, she decided to adopt the Americanized "Nikki" in high school, a version of a mentor's name, so she "didn't have to correct people constantly."

"It's kind of like losing your identity when you no longer use your original name and go by your nickname," she says. "Nikki is more of a front for everyone to use, and only my family and close friends use my original name now."

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In contrast, the New York-based Soorin Lee, 22, recently decided to reclaim her Korean name after years of going by Sadie.

"Back then, I was trying to fit in and blend in," Lee recalls, noting that people would often say her name incorrectly even though it's "pronounced how it's spelled."

"But at the end of the day, I am Asian and I am from South Korea, and that's not going to change with a new name. If people aren't willing to get to know me just because of my name or where I come from, that's their fault."

It's something Yeoh wishes she had done when entering the film industry. In hindsight, the "Crazy Rich Asians" star says she wishes she "stood up and said ‘No, I demand that you use my name.'"

Today, she urges Asians to take pride in their names – and that's what "Shang-Chi" teaches audiences.

"I think that's very important we keep (our names), we embrace it," Yeoh says.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Shang-Chi': Simu Liu, Michelle Yeoh talk pressure to Westernize names