PR0METHEUS wrote:I was always curious about this with Chinese people's names. I always wondered why Chinese and Japanese people in the US often took on American type names. Names like "Joe" or "Melissa" don't seem to fit with someone who is Chinese or Japanese by appearance. In the reverse, I haven't met any Caucasian or African American people (for example) with a name like Qing Cen.
Not to say that it's a bad thing to have a 'different' name.

Not sure if this would help ->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_nameBut yeah, like me i don't live in china but i have a western name for where i live.
Beside, there are some case that i know some chinese which they don't have western names.
(They all known by just their chinese name). Most of my friend call me in my western name, but my last names are chinese. So basically i have two profiles

lol
1.- My western name and last name ("western chinese") combined with one chinese word.
2.- My 'pure' chinese names and surname. 甘偉康 (Cam Wei Hong -> need to be verified if its correctly spelled lol)
And in "reverse", in that case i think it can't be possible. When a foreign goes to china to live, china ppl just will they call him by his name or maaybe they give a chinese name (but its veeery rare to do that). Because hes not chinese, and chinese name, tradition is dificult to understand, even for me. And giving a western name to a chinese its more easy, its like a nick name.
Btw dom, your Dad's chinese? and your Mother have a relative-chinese?