Question Family names in chinese

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Chiaroscuro, Dec 27, 2019.

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  1. Chiaroscuro

    Chiaroscuro Your Favourite Family Disappointment

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    Im just curious. Why do chinese author always use family name? Why not the name itself? Is it a culture thing?
    I noticed korean is also the same.
    But if it's western name, they never use family name.

    For example: eugene lee, written as eugene, not eugene lee the full name
    Or Robert han, just Robert not robert han.
    Meanwhile the easten name:
    Lee jee han, not jeehan
    Fang ruihui, written as fang ruihui not just ruihui.

    Fang ruihui walked home vs Ruihui walked home.

    Just found it interesting since this is the phenomenon I've found in every book I've read and i just wanna know why.
     
  2. ExcitableFoci

    ExcitableFoci Well-Known Member

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    [D]
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2021
  3. Harry

    Harry Now you see me

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    Yeah its culture also they write their family name in front
    As you can see in novel, people from the same family name live together in clan, you can imagine a small village with the same family name
    And for little kid, example Fang Ruhui often called Xiao Fang (Lil /Small Fang) not Xiao Ruhui (Small Ruhui) and people will know this kid is from Fang family
     
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  4. Reindeer

    Reindeer RynDeeVuo

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    What if the entire village is owned by the Fang Clan and everyone is Fang?
     
  5. keialpha

    keialpha Well-Known Member

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    It is because traditionally, the family is considered more important than the person. In a way, you can consider that a person is actually not legally responsible for his action, his family/clan is. So if a person commit a crime, you exterminate his whole clan, as the clan is the "legally person". You never offends a young master, you actually offends the clan the young master is from. This have been seen in so many CN novels you must have seen a hundred times.
     
  6. Amaruna Myu

    Amaruna Myu ugly squid dokja (●´∀`●)

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    mm... two character names sound weird if you call them by first-name basis
     
  7. Nai waa

    Nai waa Well-Known Member

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    To add more to the confusion, some tradition have "courtesy name" which is how outsider refer to them while their real name is only known and used by family members and close friends.
     
  8. nonononononono

    nonononononono NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO

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    In China, you don't call people's first name unless you are close to them.
    Here is an example,
    two people meet each other for the first time, they would call each other Miss/Mr. (Family Name)
    after two people got to know each other, they would call each other little/older sister/brother (Family Name)
    next level would be calling the first name directly.
    the final level would be calling the last letter of their first name and repeat it twice.
    for example Wang Xiao Ming
    you would call Mingming.
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2019
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  9. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    eh not really such thing only found on old story such as romance of three kingdom~ or hmm wuxia with old time setting as for modern setting never see such thing
     
  10. Chiaroscuro

    Chiaroscuro Your Favourite Family Disappointment

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    Thank you for all the answers! I find it enlightening
     
  11. DamienGH

    DamienGH New Member

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    Interesting topic) I watched a lot of anime but this feature did not catch my eye. Probably just used)
     
  12. SilverCyanide

    SilverCyanide Well-Known Member

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    Depends really on which Chinese-speaking country you're from, and also how many characters are in your name. For example, I have 3 characters in my name, family name first (1 character) followed by my given name (2 characters).

    In my country, it's uncommon to call people with their full, 3 character name. It's also uncommon to see people with only 2 character names. Everyone calls each other by their given names only (of course, we are a primarily English-speaking country with a mix of races, so it's only among the Chinese). But this is not so in Mainland China. There, it's very common to have 2 character names, and you rarely call someone you're not close to by just their given name.

    In Chinese culture, how you refer to someone is a sign of respect. If I called you by your full name, it's me being polite and showing respect to you, but also indicating we aren't all that close. If I were to omit the family name or tack on an 'Ah-' or 'Xiao-' to one character of your name, that probably means we're really good friends/family/lovers - or I'm looking down on/making fun of you.

    Names are intrinsically tied to respect and closeness in Chinese culture, which is why most characters in Chinese novels only call each other by their full names, it just reflects their relationship.

    It's a different case for 2 character names. You would never call someone by their 1 character given name, simply because, 1. it sounds too abrupt and doesn't sound nice, and 2. imagine you were in a room full of Johns, if you call them by their first name only, who's gonna know which John you're referring to?

    In this case, let's say the person's name is Li Ming and you want to call them by a more affectionate name because Li Ming sounds too distant, you'd add on a 'Xiao-' to make Xiao Ming or Little Ming, a 'Ah-' to make Ah Ming, or if you're really close, like older-generation-of-family close or lovers, you have the option to add on '-er' to the back of the name to make Ming-er, which loosely translates to 'Ming dear'.

    Fun fact: The word for 'name' in Chinese is made up of the characters 名 and 字, which were the words used in ancient China to refer to your birth name (the name only your relatives and those really close to you called you) and your courtesy name (the name you're given at a later age that most other people called you by) respectively. A prime example is Zhuge Liang/Zhuge Kongming.
     
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  13. mikeyla

    mikeyla Well-Known Member

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    Respect in the asian culture is a must! People dont use names and just call each other with their family name. Unless ofc they’re familiar with each other and dont mind calling/using their own names. Also age doesnt matter its about formality and respect between the people
     
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