Originally Posted by
fassy
Names are... kind of arbritrary... a lot of my contacts in China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, India and a lot of African nations do use English (Christian) names if they have any business with Europeans or Americans.
Some are rather creative in finding a good like Charlene for Sha Li but others are just pick up any name from a western TV show they like.
In a lot of schools in Hong Kong, students are told to have a Western name (make one if your parents haven't given you one), and some parents chose to only put Western names in their children's birth certificate - which is an awesome thing because you'll ever have the issue of people can't pronounce your name. I address myself with my Western name, in fact every one of my friend in Hong Kong called me that and I used that for all my FFP/hotel programme etc. without my Chinese names. I should have removed all those Chinese names on my passport when I got married 23 years ago and then the ordeal with SAS/Egypt Air would never have happened. The name only makes sense if you know Chinese, and if not they are just unpronounceable sounds.