Chinese Names

[JuniperEccles]

In Peter May's China novels his main character is called Li Yan.   The book explains that Chinese people have their surnames first but Li Yan is called Li by everyone, including his girlfriend.  Can anyone explain this, please?

[Buenchico]

Quote:
" My girlfriend's name is Huang Rui.  Huang is her family name. As you may know, Chinese are more commonly known by their family name and it comes first when they introduce themselves and speak to people whom they are not close to.  

My girlfriend's colleagues would call her Huang.  Her
doctor would call her Huang.  Her teacher would as well.  Her friends might call her by a nickname or Huang Rui.  I call her Xiao Huang which means little Huang".

Source:
https://joninchina.weebly.com/

It used to be fairly common for people in the UK to be called by their surnames y anyone other than close family members. When I was in secondary education, everyone was known only by their surnames, both at school and beyond.  (For example, if I told my mother that I was going to my best friend's house, I'd say "I'm going to see if Dennington's in".  It would never have even occurred to me to say "I'm going to Stephen's house". Forenames simply weren't used by us then).

It wasn't just we schoolboys who only used surnames.  Our teachers did too.  So, for example, we might hear one teacher ask another, "Excuse me, Horsforth, but have you seen Mirfin anywhere?". To which the reply might be "Yes, he's in the staff room, talking to Fensom and Hewitt". My father (who worked in an office) would refer to his colleagues in a similar fashion, never using their forenames.

[Old_Geezer]

Well, having the surname "Darling", that soon put paid to that nonsense.

[NoseyNose]

I think that the worst,and most confusing,given names are from Korea.They often don't look(or seem) to be anything like we think they should.LOL

[THECORBYLOON]

Whereas, pronouncing Featherstonhaugh as, "Fanshaw" is obvious?

[Peter Pedant]

Irish fanshawz go for the full flush - not many people know that. 

Viet - names are just a word - my taxi driver was 'addition' - er in Viet of course

[Peter Pedant]

 So, for example, we might hear one teacher ask another, "Excuse me, Horsforth, but have you seen Mirfin anywhere?"

discontinued in the NHS - 1980-5 - one old bagga would go all woo-woo if I addressed him " hello X ,Y here". Old twit.

Persisted much longer in America Noah Wylie played someone called Carrrrrrrrderrrrrrrrr.  ( strongly rhotic and with a velarised 't')

[brainiac]

A bit off subject, but there's lots I'd like to know about Chinese, particularly its writing system.  With no alaphabet (as we would recognise one) how many characters are there in written Chinese.  How on earth do you introduce any subtelty into it - the subjunctive mood, future conditional tense, say - with such a limited array of characters?  The Oxford English dictionary has 600,000 words!

 

And how do you make a Chinese typewriter if there are hundreds of characters?

[THECORBYLOON]

There are typewriters with Chinese characters

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-chinese-typewriter-snap-story.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CBut%20Chinese%20typewriters%20are%20exquisite,the%20standard%20for%20Chinese%20typewriters.

[brainiac]

// Because Chinese has no alphabet and no alphabetical order, the operator must essentially memorize the location of each character — about 2,500 on a typical machine.//

Ruddy hell, that just raises even more questions!

Same question with written Korean, which from what I've seen is even more limited and stylised.

[THECORBYLOON]

It must be hellish making sure all those characters are in the correct order and the right way round.

 

I noticed in the photo a fair few of them were missing.