Chinese surname: Encyclopedia II - Chinese surname - Usage

Chinese surname - Usage

In writing Chinese names, Chinese family names are placed before the given name, e.g. Cheung Kwok Wing. Hence the Western concept of first name and last name only creates confusion when used with Chinese names. In Westernized Asian countries or for those residing in the West, often a Western name is chosen, e.g. Leslie Cheung (張國榮). When the Western name and Chinese name are put together, it often becomes hard to tell what the family name is. Using Leslie Cheung as an example, some variants include:

• Zhāng Guóróng — China, transcription using official Hanyu pinyin system, which romanizes Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese characters and adds suprasegmental tone markers.
• Cheung Kwok-wing — China (Cantonese-speaking), romanization of Cantonese pronunciation of Chinese characters.
• Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing — Hong Kong, hybrid of Western/Chinese.
• Leslie Kwok-wing Cheung — United States among others, use given name as middle name.

Some publications and legal documents will print the family name in small capital letters to allow it to be easily distinguished, e.g. Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing.

Chinese women usually retain their maiden names after marriage. Outside of Mainland China they will sometimes place their husbands' family names in front of theirs. For example, former Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong, Mrs. Anson Chan is known as Chan Fang On-sang (陳方安生) where Fang is her maiden name. However, this is only used among public servants in HK, following the British. Most HK women retain their own surnames after marriage.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Usage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki