List of common Chinese surnamesThese are lists of the most common Chinese surnames in the People's Republic of China (Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China), the Republic of China (Taiwan), and the Chinese diaspora overseas as provided by government or academic sources. Chinese names also form the basis for many common Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese surnames, and to an extent, Filipino surnames in both translation and transliteration into those languages.Traditional Chinese charactersTraditional Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets used to write the Chinese language, with the other being simplified characters. Traditional characters predominated in written Chinese, the historical lingua franca of East Asia, until the mid-20th century. Today, they are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia.
TaiwanCountry in East AsiaTaiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, lies between the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.Chinese surnameChinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the Western tradition in which surnames are given last.
Overseas ChineseEthnic Chinese residing outside of ChinaEthnic groupAn Overseas Chinese person is a person of Chinese ancestry or is a person of full or partial Chinese origin who traces his or her ancestry back to the Greater China but are living and working outside of Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). This term generally applies to both people of Chinese ancestry and citizens abroad. As of 2026, approximately 40 million ethnic Chinese live abroad.
Simplified Chinese charactersStandardized set of Chinese characters This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
South ChinaSouth China (simplified Chinese: 华南; traditional Chinese: 華南; pinyin: Huánán; Jyutping: waa4 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China proper is that most of its citizens are not native speakers of Standard Chinese.
Chinese peopleAlternative Chinese nameTraditional Chinese中國人Simplified Chinese中国人The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China. Understandings of who is considered Chinese have shifted across time through social construction. People of Chinese ethnicity or ancestry who live outside Greater China may consider themselves overseas Chinese.
PinyinRomanization scheme for Standard ChineseScheme for the Chinese Phonetic AlphabetSimplified Chinese汉语拼音方案Traditional Chinese漢語拼音方案Literal meaningscheme of spelled Han language sounds This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see .
Wade–GilesWade–Giles is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language and the second most common transcription after Pinyin. Based on the Beijing dialect, Wade–Giles was developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's A Chinese–English Dictionary (1892). It became the system of transcription familiar in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century.
North AmericaContinentA map of North America's physical, political, and population characteristics as of 2018North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean.
Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia is the geographical south-eastern subregion of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of mainland Australia, which is a part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean.
XieRelated word or term.HsiehRelated word or term.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.