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a guide to how chinese names work! (thread) (please read this. please)
source: i’m chinese
ofc if i say anything wrong in this thread you should qrt or dm me and i will make amendments to it. but before you yell at me. be chinese or have some concrete reason behind why you can speak for chinese people. otherwise i’m not going to listen to you
so! as we are all aware chinese names typically have 2 or 3 characters, sometimes 4. as a general rule, when you call someone by a chinese name, 2 characters is the minimum.
what do i mean by this? let’s start with 3-character names. the structure of a 3-character name goes like this: (family name) (1st character of individual name)(2nd character of individual name). e.g. wang yibo
in this case it is totally ok to call him either wang yibo or yibo. 2 characters minimum. referring to him by his individual name is fine. go ahead and tweet “yibo best boy” bc he deserves it
now 2-character names is where people tend to get messed up. the structures goes: (family name) (individual name) e.g. xiao zhan. since xiao is his family name, is it ok to call him zhan?
no. remember: 2-characters minimum. in the case of 2-character names the family name is treated as part of the individual name as well. call him xiao zhan, not xiao or zhan. “xiao zhan china’s it-boy” not “zhan china’s it-boy”
question: is it ok to call him zhan-ge? technically yes. it’s fine to attach one character to an honourific. i’m not familiar with fan-idol culture in china, so idk whether that’s ok by cultural standards, but linguistically, it’s acceptable.
other question: in mdzs kids are referred to by their personal name i.e. lan yuan. in this case is it ok to call him yuan? uh. no? this is something i’m not totally sure about, but it’s just weird to see him referred to as “yuan”. call him a-yuan.
last question: what about nicknames? usually the last character is repeated (e.g. yangyang for sjy) or a character is added in front of the last character (e.g. xiaoyang, a-yang). still two characters.
ok so when is it appropriate to call someone using only one character? i can only think of one scenario: using one character of an honourific. and even in this case there’s some rules.
i’ve heard people use one character titles (i.e. ba for dad, ma for mom, jie for older sis, ge for older bro) only for immediate family, and not for younger siblings (didi and meimei). also used only in modern context i think.
the 2-character minimum thing ofc does not explain the cultural context behind why it’s like that. i’m just trying to make it simple for everyone who doesn’t speak mandarin to remember.
ok that’s all. please keep this in mind if you’re involved in a chinese fandom. other chinese people feel free to correct me bc i clearly don’t live in china. thank you to all the non-chinese people who educate yourselves on our culture 
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ok have just received info that c-fans do call xz zhan-ge so go wild with that my dudes
exceptions exist but not really in the case of addressing celebrities https://twitter.com/scarletjun/status/1237269356939264000?s=21">https://twitter.com/scarletju...
important to note that i’m talking in the context of addressing celebrities but ofc exceptions exist outside of this context https://twitter.com/ceruleanloft/status/1237277179899043841?s=21">https://twitter.com/ceruleanl... https://twitter.com/ceruleanloft/status/1237277179899043841">https://twitter.com/ceruleanl...
