why are chinese leaders called by their first names by western media?
350592
In Chinese, the first name is the family name that is passed on.  Second and third names are given names.
387175
Chinese names are short compared to other counrties. Usually they only have first name and last name, no middle name. So in Chinese, normally a name is only 2-4 characters. Chinese Pingying (which tells us how to pronounce the Chinese word)is used in the English or other languages as name. Pingying is much longer than the real Chinese characterm, making the Chinese name about 2-10 letter1 long in first name, 2 to 6 letters long in last name.\n\nI hope this doesn't confuse you.
1182890
there are two main styles of putting chinese words into english equivalents. the Reds decided to change over to a style they deemed more politically correct. the chinese word and sound for the city remained unchanged but not spellable or prounouncable to english speakers.\nThey do not actually call their land CHINA but have another word for it that means Middle Earth ( sort of like in the hobbits world)\nthey consider themselves to be the center of the world, as does most civilizations. China actually has a more legitimate claim to that distinction based upon size, geography, age, population and civilization.
902564
King, Emperor, Shah, Sultan, and Tsar are all names of the rulers of different areas of the world. It has to do with the language but not the job.
1181551
i'm chinese.  and about Sue Y. Chiu her first name must b hr american name so yeah never heard of her if that's her chinese name. do u have any idea about how many chinese people have the last name ( Chiu)?  it's like trying to find someone with the last name of Smith
93836
This is the result of a long process of sinicization of the world. China has always been regarded as aggressive, therefore, 2/5 of its territory is occupied after the communist regime, break-away taiwan is another proof of the communist regimes stance. Tibet, Xinjiang (East Turkistan) Inner Mongolia are a few among those who are not of yellow races, accordingly, not Han Chinese (ghuo). they are Tibetan buddhists, Turkic Uyghurs or Mongols. Huis are another one represented as a star on the chinese flag. I am afraid political leaders and officials are not well-aware of this policy. They only care for money, capital investments, but not capital punishment, gross human rights abuses committed by the communist regime.
98322
The Chinese kick a can down the street and whatever sound it makes is the new baby's name...Ting, Ching, Ling and so on and so forth....\n\nBut honestly, it is the father or father's side (in my case, my paternal grandmother) who names the children. The first character is the surname, taken from the father. The second and third characters are the given names. The second character, I was told, is the "generation" name and in my family it is the same for all my sisters...but I find that this is not always true. The last character is the individual's name.\n\nAs four of my siblings were born in the United States, they have both a chinese name and a "legal" name. For their legal "western" names, their first names were chosen by our parents and their middle names are actually the enunciated form of their chinese names and of course, the surname is our father's surname.\n\nIn the Chamorro (indigenouse people of Guam) culture, it is common for the child's middle name to be the mother's maiden name. A woman then changes her middle name to become her maiden surname when she marries...or just adds it on. So a female child borm to Mary Taitano and John Cruz would be Lisa Taitano Cruz. When she marries, she would be Lisa Cruz Castro or Lisa Taitano  Cruz Castro. Hope that was easy enough to follow.
245134
1.adolf hitler\n2> Josef Stalin\n3. Mao Tse tung\n4. ...\n\nbut maybe you mean alive or of all time? you should clarify then I';ll edit if need be...\n\n10) Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea. Age 63. In power since 1979. Last year’s rank: 10\n\n9) Seyed Ali Khamane’i, Iran. Age 66. In power since 1989. Last year’s rank: 18\n\n8) Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan. Age 65. In power since 1990. Last year’s rank: 8\n\n6) Hu Jintao, China.Age 63.In power since 2002. Last year’s rank:4\nBetween 250,000 and 300,000 political dissidents are held in “reeducation-through-labor” camps. There are no privately owned TV or radio stations. The government opens and censors mail and monitors phone calls, faxes, e-mails and text messages. \n\n5) Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan. Age 67. In power since 1990. Last year’s rank: 15\nKarimov’s army, massacred hundreds of men, women and children. A 2003 law made Karimov and all members of his family immune from prosecution forever. \n\n\n4) Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe. Age 81. In power since 1980. Last year’s rank: 9\nLife in Zimbabwe has gone from bad to worse: It has the world’s highest inflation rate, 80% unemployment and an HIV/AIDS rate of more than 20%. Life expectancy has declined since 1988 from 62 to 38 years. Mugabe forcibly evicted some 700,000 people from their homes or businesses.\n\n3) Than Shwe, Burma (Myanmar). Age 72. In power since 1992. Last year’s rank: 3\nBurma leads the world in the use of children as soldiers, and the regime is notorious for using forced labor on construction projects and as porters for the army in war zones. The long-standing house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, recently was extended for six months. Just to drive near her heavily guarded home is to risk arrest.\n\n2) Kim Jong-il, North Korea. Age 63. In power since 1994. Last Year’s rank: 2\nWhile the outside world focuses on Kim Jong-il’s nuclear weapons program, domestically he runs the world’s most tightly controlled society. North Korea continues to rank last in the index of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders, and for the 34th straight year it earned the worst possible score on political rights and civil liberties from Freedom House. An estimated 250,000 people are confined in “reeducation camps.” Malnourishment is widespread: According to the United Nations World Food Program, the average 7-year-old boy in North Korea is almost 8 inches shorter than a South Korean boy the same age and more than 20 pounds lighter.\n\n1) Omar al-Bashir, Sudan. Age 62. In power since 1989. Last year’s rank: 1\n\nSince February 2003, Bashir’s campaign of ethnic and religious persecution has killed at least 180,000 civilians in Darfur in western Sudan and driven 2 million people from their homes. The good news is that Bashir’s army and the Janjaweed militia that he supports have all but stopped burning down villages in Darfur. The bad news is why they’ve stopped: There are few villages left to burn. The attacks now are aimed at refugee camps. While the media have called these actions “a humanitarian tragedy,” Bashir himself has escaped major condemnation. In 2005, Bashir signed a peace agreement with the largest rebel group in non-Islamic southern Sudan and allowed its leader, John Garang, to become the nation’s vice president. But Garang died in July in a helicopter crash, and Bashir’s troops still occupy the south.
744910
in chinese, their their last name is their first and their first name is their last.. so yao ming (in english) = ming yao (in chinese)
817437
Hu Jintao\n(leader of communist china)\npresident of the peoples republic of china\nchairman of the central militaty commission\n& the general secretary of the communist party of china\n\ntook over for jiang zemin in 2003
567940
You answered your own question..It's because a lot of people have confused His title with His name.
841685
You are not thick my darling. I think its another brilliant question.\nWell here is my answer my little cherry pie.\nIn that part of the world, any famous person is known only by their first name. a bit like Kylie is here. That is their culture so I do always find it strange how Tony Blair calls him Saddam too, but that's Tony for you.\nAnother possible reason could be that Saddam wanted to portrait a nicer friendlier image of himself, you know, oh look here comes Uncle Saddam to gas us all.\nAnyway I really just wanted to answer so I could tell you how much I love you!
645922
I expect it would have to be a name from the most populated country n the world which is China, I believe. Therefore names such as John are probably not in the running unless you are referring only to the English speaking and western world. Some sites say that Muhammad is the most common name in the world. \n\nI hope this helps.
309288
I'm not sure what you're asking, but I'll try.\nChina is an acient country and has a unique cultural of its own. China is trying so hard to let the world know its fanstastic acient culture but doesn't do much on accepting new things. \nAll Chinese leaders have to reach certain age like 70 or even older so he can rule the country, I don't know why, but all Chinese presidents are really old and usually they can be doing the job for 10 years. So that's how you know the political development of China. China is always trying to be the good guy in the international realationship, making me so sick. \nSorry my English aren't that good, hopefully it can help.
373530
Because our government and our business see China as nothing more than a new market and has no consideration of ethics.  \n\nYahoo executives should be burned alive.
319473
Yes; once a president they call them mister predident for life.  It is to honor the role they held at the time they were the active president.
412900
They do not.  China believed they were the center of the universe eons ago ("Chung-Kuo" in mandarin  literally means "Central Kingdom"). \nAmerica is the only superpower presently, and its economic and "cultural" reaches are worldwide no matter how agreeable or disagreeable they impact other societies or cultures.  It is easy to target the "Ugly American" because they have so many foibles that can be picked on.\nLet us put it this way - If communism or socialism were a better solution, would you rather have that over the present socio-capitalist system  present worldwide today?\nBTW - I am not an American Citizen.