Chee Lai!

Is Bo Xilai's given name the same as the Chee Lai

Nope. I was sure this would prove not to be the case, but it was fun to research what 熙来 (Xilai) really does mean. The first character is uncommon in modern Chinese and means "brightness" or "harmony." The second character is a very common one that means "come." So, together, we get something like "Brightness is Coming." More details on Xilai and his siblings on this page.

The word used in the song is 起来 = "qilai" in pinyin. It does, indeed, mean "get up" or "arise."

X in pinyin, by the way, isn't anything like an English "ch" sound. Rather, it's a palatalized "sh" sound. (English doesn't have it, but various other languages do.)

in Chinese of unknown-to-me quality

Not good.

Thanks.

Bo Qilai would certainly be a fine jocular name for the leader of a peasant uprising and nemesis of that old class enemy Yang Wei.

It's true that that character xi is not used often in modern Chinese for its underlying meaning, but it's nonetheless recognised by all as the second character in the name of Emperor Kangxi. No doubt this imperial association made it an auspicious choice for a son's name, even to a hardened revolutionary like Bo's father.

Chinese are always having to "spell out" their names with as-in references. So since childhood, Bo Xilai has been saying again and again, "that's xi as in Kangxi." This is the sort of factor that counts in picking a Chinese name.

The pinyin 'x' isn't the same as an English 'sh'. It's pronounced more like 'hs' (which is difficult for English speakers).

BTW - my Chinese student tells me that we also mispronounce Ai Wei Wei. His name should be pronounced as 'I Wee Wee'

No, in Mandarin his name sounds far closer to "I Way Way."

The pinyin 'x' isn't the same as an English 'sh'. It's pronounced more like 'hs' (which is difficult for English speakers).

Nobody said it was, you ninny. What part of "palatalized" and "English doesn't have it" did you fail to understand?

Also, 'hs,' though formerly used as a transcription for the sound under the old Wade-Giles system, is a terrible way to tell an English speaker to produce the sound, as it's almost certain to result in a hiss that is completely off the mark. Your comical comment about Ai Wei Wei likewise goes to show that, unlike the other posters on this thread, you've never studied Mandarin, so you don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about.

A puntastic Bo Xilai reference

(Due to the mainland government's crackdown on high spending at government banquets, Hong Kong wine re-exporters are having a hard time.)

No, I've never studied Mandarin.
OTOH, my informant has spoken it every day of her life.