My name is too many characters to use for exit (by 2 characters) so I have not been able to use the e-gate in Shanghai. I've spoken with the airline (MU mostly) and the agents at the e-gate and they both say there is nothing to be done. I am pretty sure there is a specific format used by all airlines because my boarding passes with JAL. CX, UA, AA, etc. all format my name the same way, with two characters cut-off so its pretty unlikely that side of the process will change. It's also unlikely the government will relax the requirements to base e-channel usage on passport only with no need to match the full name. Basically this is me whining about something I cannot change.

It's kind of a pain but sometimes if you go to the e-gate and get rejected, the agent will direct you to jump the queue at the manned checkpoint. I suppose I will have to try to exclude my middle name upon renewal of my passport, if that is allowable. .

The e-gate worked for me on exit once in PEK, but it was probably manual over-ride by the agent.