About
dillim

Hey there!

The name's dilllim. How I came about this name, well, is a bit of a stretch but hope you can follow along.

My real name is, Derrick Lieu, initials being DL. For about the last 10-15 years of my life, I've neglected my cultural heritage as a Cantonese speaker, and so I've become much more interested in relearning the language, the culture, and the food. One Cantonesee phrase in particular, 留名 or "Lau meng", means "to leave a name." It can be used to hold your place at a reservation or as a reminder to come back to a thing like a bookmark.

To me, I want to leave my name in the world by my own terms and in a meaningful way to me and the people around me. Putting together my initials and 留名 or "Lau meng," in English, you get dllm, which as it turns out… is also an intialism for a very profane Cantonese phrase. It stands for "diu lei lo mo." You can Google search it yourself to find out what it means, but it is a core phrase in Cantonese people's culture and is not by any means as bad as it may seem.

Going back to the name, dllm, if you try to sound it out, you get the word "dillim." I was inspired by one of my favorite artists, IU, for that idea.

I doubt 99% of the visitors on my site will read this giant block of text, but to those who do, I appreciate you. Thanks for visiting and if any of this resonates with you or if you want to work together on something special, let's talk.