Same Chinese Last Names, Different Romanizations

There are lots of Chinese people. We all know that. There are also lots of Chinese people with the same last names.

Well, not quite as many in English.

Romanization of Chinese last names into English (or any language that uses the Roman alphabet) can get pretty complicated, but let's try to keep it relatively simple by focusing on the differences among Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. You don't want me to get into the provincial pronunciations of Chinese last names (almost every province in China has its own dialect and therefore its own way of pronouncing every last name there is). Further, most provinces in Mainland China use standard pinyin anyway, meaning they romanize their last names as they would be pronounced in standard Chinese Mandarin. "Pinyin" means more or less "pronunciation" in Mandarin and is China's officially adopted romanization system. Hong Kong speaks Cantonese, so they romanize their last names a different way. Taiwan speaks Mandarin as well, so sometimes it romanizes last names the same way as Mainland China.

Anyway, onto the last names (Chinese characters in parentheses are simplified characters followed by a comma then the traditional; if there is no comma, then Mao never managed to make that character simpler for foreigners to learn).

Let's start with the four most common ones.

Zhang = Cheung = Chang (?, ?)

Zhang Ziyi is without a doubt the most famous Chinese actress outside of China. Zhang is her last name. In Chinese names, the surname precedes the given name, but once romanized, it can go either way, which can be pretty confusing for foreigners. However, nowadays, if a Chinese person has an English first name, then the last name definitely goes after. If the name's simply romanized Chinese, then the last name appears first.