Topic: news Chinese People’s English Names – Is There a Method to the Madness?

I'm speechless... how long have you been in China? I guess it doesn't take all THAT long to figure out that same Wei could have some 30 different characters under it, all under the glory of 4 different tones... Just because you hear a "wei" doesn't mean that it's the same name (and pronunciation sometimes) to a Chinese person. Lost in translation is all I could see in this situation. and give you a basic crash course in Chinese names. Xiao (ie. Xiao Wei) usually refer to someone younger, and Lao (i.e. Lao Wei) usually a respect to the older generation. And Weiwei could be a young girl's nick name (not many adult man would go by a repeated character in his name, not that I have encountered). And like in anywhere in the world, in any business or formal sitting (this include your mother yelling at you), a person's entire name should be pronounced. And yes, when I was in high school, there were 5 Chrises in my class of 30 people... If you live in China, I'd suggest you to learn some language, it doesn't kill you!