Order Of Name On Chinese Business Card

Q: I have recently met two gentlemen from China who provided me with their business cards. I wish to write a follow-up letter, but I do not wish to offend either by transposing their names. (e.g., Mr. Hood Timothy instead of Mr. Timothy Hood). Is there a specific custom regarding the order of names on a Chinese business card? I am, of course, looking at the English side (and cannot read the Chinese side). I even went so far as to research surnames, but I am still left with enough doubt. The names are: Wang Zuo Shu Zhao Erli My guess is that the first name might be in traditional order (i.e., Dear Mr. Shu), but the second name shows the surname first? (i.e., Dear Mr. Zhao) Any help would be appreciated.

A: -For the second gentleman Zhao Erli, it is 99% clear that his last name is Zhao. As for the first gentleman, I would think he is likely Mr. Wang instead of Mr. Shu. In China it is a tradition to put the pinyin names as they are in the Chinese names, so surname comes before first name. Note that there are some Chinese surnames with two words or even more (if you take into account the Mongolians or Tibetans living in China). I cannot say I know all these "multiple surnames", and that is why I said it was 99% clear. -The traditional order of Chinese names is to place the family (last) name first followed by a middle (generation) name and then his/her personal name. The generation name identifies all cousins (first, second or third) of the family whatever their ages. Both the names you provided follow this order. So they are Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhao. How to tell? More below. My parents say that there is an ancestral altar in my ancestral home village that has a Chinese peom or saying over the main door. Our middle names were picked from that poem. So depending on where in that poem our middle name appears, we immediately have an idea of how far down the totem pole is anyone from the first generation. A visit to the ancestral village would bring out scores of relatives I would never even suspect existed and each would have their relationship to me accurately worked out in a thrice. None of my siblings nor myself have gone back yet for the warning is the banquet we would be expected to provide for them all would bankrupt us:-) To answer your question Wang and Zhao are common Chinese surnames but that requires a bit of inside knowledge so to speak. Because of frequent contacts with the west the order of placing the family name becomes a problem as western practice places this last. Again how to tell? Chinese is monosyllabic and each syllable has its own unique written character. You cannot write a two syllable word in Chinese. So if Mr. Wang Zuo Shu writes his name that way he is following the traditional Chinese trinary system with his family name first. Normally he will include the correct Chinese character under each name. Mr. Zhao Erli realises the problem about family name placement in alphabetized form and make a half compromise by indicating that his friends call him Erli (2 syllables, therefore cannot be written in Chinese) but his family name Zhao is still paramount. The final compromise is of course Erli Zhao where someone like yourself is totally confused and goes with something you are familair with and address him by the positional last name Zhao on his business card. So you got Mr. Zhao right and Mr. Shu wrong and a lot of Chinese are realising that. Expect to see more single syllable family names and two syllable or hyphenated personal names in business cards.

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