What's up with Chinese people having English names?

[Sobes]

http://www.slate.com/id/2217001

It's about the tendency of Chinese professionals in China to have Chinese names. The writer, Huan Hsu, is an American with Chinese parents and when he moved to China, everyone wanted to know what his English name is. The article touches on how in China, people tend to have many names, depending on the situation, and it's not uncommon to change names when entering a new phase of life.

[KNY]

Interesting! (once you get past the racist proposal made by the legislator in the first paragraph)

I like the point that in China, people don't call each other by their given names but rather by their "rank" and family relationships - so having English names that are used levels the playing field, so to speak.

[nomdeplume]

An interesting article. Thank you for sharing it.

I have a friend who was born and raised in China. She uses an English name now that she lives in the U.S., but she got the English name when she was still in China, working at a hotel that catered to foreign business travelers. When I visited Hong Kong, almost all of the Chinese people I encountered were using English names, which I attributed to the fact that Hong Kong was a British protectorate for so long.

I think some of their use of English names can be attributed to the fact that English has become something of a universal business language. When people are conducting business in English, perhaps using an English name seems as if it would logically follow.