Why do chinese basketball players have their 1st name on their jerseys instead of theirs last name?
In Asian culture, people are traditionally named surname first then given name second. Yao Ming, for example has the surname “Yao” and given name “ming” Yi Jianlian has the family name “Yi” and the given name “Jianlian”. Therefore, they don’t have their first names on their jerseys but their family names. Some Chinese adopt English names. For example, Vicki Zhao uses Zhao as a last name in English, but her Chinese original name is Zhao Wei, surname first. In Hong Kong a person named Tony Chan but whose chinese name is Chan Fong Lee would sometimes spell his name as Tony Chan Fong Lee or Chan fong lee, (Tony). My wife’s legal name is Zhang Bo but she uses the name Cathy Zhang. Another way I’ve seen it done in a japanese anime website is Zhang, Bo – preserving the last name -first name order but making it clear that Zhang is a last name.
