Simu Liu On How To Actually Pronounce His Name: ‘You Should Definitely Get That Right, You B----es’

Simu Liu is becoming a big star thanks to roles in major projects like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Barbie. His name is one you’re starting to hear more and more. The question is, have you been hearing it correctly? There’s a decent chance that, depending on who is saying his name, they’re getting it wrong. Luckily for all of us, the man himself is here to help us all out.

Simi Liu took to Instagram to discuss how his name is pronounced. While it may seem simple, pronunciation in Chinese is a bit more complex than you may think, which means even if you think you’ve been saying the Shang-Chi star's name right, you still might be getting it wrong. Here’s your daily Chinese language lesson from Professor Liu.

I know just enough about Mandarin Chinese to know that a simple inflexion of the voice can literally change the meaning of a word, and such is the case with Simu Liu’s last name, as a simple phonetic reading of his name from a native English speaker isn’t quite accurate to how his name should actually be said. Luckily, as long as you pronounce his name the way it’s spelled, and not as “Lu,” it sounds like Simu Liu will be cool with you.

On his first name, however, you’re on your own. It’s pronounced exactly how it's spelled, so get it right, ya b----es.

While not everybody’;s name can be easy to pronounce for everybody, the least we can all do is to try our best to get it right. And Simu Liu is one that people are saying more and more, even on Jeopardy, so if people get it wrong when saying it on TV, it’s only going to cause people watching to continue to get his name wrong, and then everybody thinks the right pronunciation is Simu Lu and not Simu Liu.

And there’s a good chance we’re going to be hearing his name a lot over the next couple of years. Liu is part of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, the film that’s probably going to be the box office champ of the entire 2026 movie schedule. We can expect he’ll be one of the names making the rounds on talk shows and being grabbing red carpets. He's already been one of the best people for hyping up Doomsday with stories from the set.

Hopefully, all the people who will be interviewing him will watch this and work on their pronunciation. I imagine if people really get it right, Simu Liu will be very happy.