Susanna Says.

Hi Everybody!

Virginia's doubts regarding the spelling of our Buddhist Goddess were well founded. Further research -after becoming acquinted with this wonderful divin- ity, turned out the following facts: there are two names for the goddess: one is Mandarin Chinese and the other Cantonese. Her name in Mandarin is spelled Kwan Yin, and in Cantonese it turns ou to be Kwun Yum. The latter is the most commonly heard in New York since the majority of the Chinese population here speaks Cantonese. Actually these spellings are a very relative thing inasmuch as they are att- empts to portray in our alphabet Chinese sounds that have no exact equivalent in English. From listening to Cantonese merchants in Chinatown one could very well spell her name: Kun Yum instead of Kwun Yum. Anyway I lean towards Kwun Yum instead of the Mand- arin form for the simple reason that Lili introduced me to the Cantonese name before. she told me about the Mandarin form.

So I'11 refer to Kwun Yum from now on. Believe it or not, my last column about this Buddhist goddess has already started ripples of interest in some un- suspected quarters: 1) several TV's have written or phoned to tell me that they knew about Kwun Yum from some time ago. Ruby, from California, tells me that she never goes anywhere without a print of Kwun Yum given to her in one of her trips to Japan by a sooth- sayer who was aware Ruby was a TV. The soothsayer gave her the image stating that it would always pro- tect her. And it seems to be working fine. Two other N.Y. TV's have already purchased statues of Kwun Yum and built little shrines for her at home.

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