There are lots of Chinese. We all know. There are also lots of Chinese with the same last names.
Well, not nearly as many in English.
Romanization of Chinese last names into English (or any language that uses the Roman alphabet) can be quite complicated, but I’ll try to keep it relatively simple to keep the differences between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. You don’t want to put last names in the provinces of China (almost every province in China has its own dialect, and so it has its own way of pronouncing every last name). Furthermore, most provinces in mainland China use standard pinyin anyway, meaning they romanize their last names as they want to be pronounced in standard Mandarin Chinese. “Pinyin” more or less means “pronunciation” in Mandarin and China’s officially adopted romanization system. Hong Kong speaks Cantonese, so they romanize their last names differently. Taiwan speaks Mandarin so well, so it sometimes romanizes last names in the same way as mainland China.
Anyway, in the last names (characters in Chinese parentheses are simpler characters followed by a comma; if there is no comma, Mao never cares to simplify that character to foreign to learn.
Let’s start with the four most common.
Zhang = Cheung = Chang (?, ?
Zhang Ziyi is undoubtedly the most famous Chinese actress outside of China. Zhang is his last name. In Chinese names, the surname comes before the name, but once romanized, it can go either way, which is quite confusing for foreigners. However, nowadays, if a Chinese person has an English first name, the last name definitely follows. If a Chinese name is simply romanized, the last name appears first.
Zhang is the most common Chinese last name, making it easily the most common last name in the world. Another famous overseas Chinese celebrity is Zhang Yimou, the director of Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and The Evil of the Golden Flower. Two are not mentioned (maybe if I go back here and there). One of HongKong’s former “Four Kings of Heaven“, the title is attributed to four popular crooners in all. Hong Kong, it was Jackie Cheung. By no means, but not related to Sorry, I can’t think of any famous Taiwanese person with this last name off the top of my head, which means naming someone so that they are not remotely recognizable to a wide audience.
Chen = Chan (?, ?
I’ll give you a few seconds to think about a celebrity with the surname Chinese Canaanite. Yeah, Jackie Chan. He is from Hong Kong. The Taiwanese president, Chen Shui Bian, has the same surname. Perhaps by the time you read this article, he is already a former president.
Wang = Wong (?) (= Huang) (?)
This last name can get a little sticky, because the two last names are actually different sounds in Mandarin (Wang and Huang), but in Cantonese they are both romanized as “Wong” because the two sounds are the same. To illustrate this example, do you remember the movie Once Upon a Time in China? They are about a historical Chinese martial artist (some would say he is a historical Chinese martial artist) whose name is Wong Fei Hong, played by Jet Li. This is the romanization of Cantonese because the man was Cantonese. The main Wong, which is his last name, is romanized as “Huang” in Mandarin, not simply “Wang”, which would simply be a pass. Hong Kong actress/singer Faye Wong, who sang “Eyes on Me” from Final Fantasy 8, has another Wong as his last name (?).
Li = Lee (?)
Lovers of martyrdom can enjoy. Two of the greatest Chinese martial artists of the century, Jet Li and Bruce Lee, share the same surname. Yes, Gong Li, the beautiful Chinese actress who plays Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha and Colin Farrell’s love interest in He does not share the same surname. His last name is Gong. “Li” is also a romanization of some other Chinese last names, but the one I mention here is the most common.
There, the big four. Let’s go over some other popular Chinese last names. Surely you have met Chinese people with these last names.
Zhou = Chow (?)
Chow Yun Fat (Hong Kong actor from Restoration Killers, Bulletproof Monk, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Stephen Chow (director and writer and actor from Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle), and Jay Chow (the insanely popular Taiwanese pop star who always made me wonder why his last name is romanized like that) all of the same name . A lesser-known overseas actress, Zhou Xun from mainland China, who stars alongside Zhang Ziyi, has the same name.
Lin = Lam (?)
Kelly Lin, who was named FHM’s sexiest woman in Asia in 2002, and Lin Chiling, a famous Taiwanese model, shared a last name. There is a famous Cantonese restaurant called Lam’s in West London. surnamed Ulpianus.
Liu = Lau (?, ?
Hong Kong actor/singer/all-around celebrity Andy Lau (actor from House of Daggers and Battle of Wits), also one of those “Four Kings of Heaven” is probably the most famous person this nickname in the world.
This is just the beginning of different romanizations of the same Chinese last names. I hope this article has enlightened you on some of the great ancestors some of your Chinese friends have.
