China people's surnames come first, and their first names come last. Why are foreigners' names the opposite?

This is related to the customs and religious beliefs of various countries. Because China has a strong sense of clan, since ancient times, China has had a huge system of etiquette and law dominated by patriarchal clan system, with the family as the unit and emphasizing the collective.

China has paid attention to the concept of family and country and collective interests since ancient times, while the West emphasizes that man is created by God. From the perspective of religious belief, the west actually emphasizes individuals and personal interests. As far as surnames are concerned, surnames represent collectives and surnames represent individuals. Because we put more emphasis on the collective, we put the surname first, while the west puts more emphasis on the individual, so we put the surname behind.

Second, in ancient times, such as Japan, surnames were exclusive to nobles. Until the late Meiji Restoration, ordinary people had their own surnames. Because the people were illiterate at that time, they made up surnames at will according to their identity and work, so a series of strange surnames such as mountains and rivers and Kobayashi appeared.

The same is true in some European countries, so now some people's surnames in Europe are still related to their ancestors' work, fiefs, living environment and even physical characteristics. In China, surnames represent blood and nobles, so surnames cannot be easily changed.

After Chinese and foreign women get married, women in China put their husbands' surnames on their own, and then call them xx. For example, when a woman in wang xing marries a man named Zhao, she is called Wang Zhao from now on. But foreign women usually give up their surnames and use their husbands' surnames instead. For example, if a woman named mary white marries Mr Black, she will be called mary black in the future. China gave priority to Confucianism, emphasizing filial piety and consanguinity, so he paid more attention to surnames.