China is an ancient land with many cultures and a diverse history. Many Westerners might think that the only thing different about Chinese surnames is that the family name comes before the given name. Actually, it is a relatively new practice for commoners to be allowed any surname at all.
Two thousand years ago, family names were denied to the rabble. Having a surname was an honor reserved only for the politically deserving. Even when that tradition was abolished, only high-born rulers could adopt a “xing”-type surname plus a given Chinese name and pass that name to their heirs. Sub-surnames, called “shi, ” also came into practice, designating seniority and importance among the hierarchy.
The most commonly occurring Chinese family names today are written with a single Chinese character. Many double-character family names were simplified during the Cultural Revolution and by the Communist government, however about 20 have survived into modern times, including Sima, Zhuge and Situ. Even more rare are surnames with three characters or more, such as Aixinjueluo, which was the surname of the Qing dynasty’s Manchurian royal family.
Surnames were a matter of great pride and prestige — or deep shame. In elementary school as recently as 100 years ago, children would recite daily from a book called the “Hundred Family Name” so that they would know who they were, where they came from — and their status in society or their lack thereof. An old saying students recited was “Those with the same surname all around the world are from the same family.” Thus, anyone named Chan was believed to be related to everybody else named Chan.
Surnames could be a matter of deep shame. School children recited daily from the “Hundred Family Name” book, which reminded everyone of who they were, from whence their families came and their rank in society — or the lack of such. Students would recite aloud “Those with the same surname all around the world are from the same family.”
In a 1990 study, the 200 most frequent family names accounted for over 96 percent of all Chinese surnames. Thousands of family names are no longer in use. As in anywhere else in the world, surnames become extinct when a family has no child who passes along the family name.
Today most Chinese families utilize the father’s birth surname. After marriage, most Chinese women take their husband’s family name, which is also given to the children. However, just as elsewhere in the world, growing numbers of Chinese women are shrugging off such tradition and keeping the surname they were born with.