A George Orwell Dystopia? Nope. China.

China is making its citizens change their names. An article on the front page of the New York Times today said that "Seeking to modernize its vast database on China's 1.3 billion citizens, the government's Public Security Bureau has been replacing the handwritten identity card that every Chinese must carry with a computer-readable one, complete with color photos and embedded microchips." The computers the bureau uses, however, only read 32,252 of the 55,000 Chinese characters. The result is that many Chinese with obscure characters in their names can't get new cards unless they change their names to something more common. Wow. What's with punching individuality in the face? No mames.