Chinese names have more variation in their given names than their surnames. Given names that are homophones can be written using different characters, such that

Chinese names have more variation in their given names than their surnames. Given names that are homophones can be written using different characters, such that even if they sound the same, they look different in writing. See https://carlgene.com/blog/2011/11/most-common-%E5%90%8C%E9%9F%B3%E8%AF%8D-word-homophones-in-mandarin/ https://carlgene.com/blog/2011/11/most-common-%E5%90%8C%E9%9... However, that written differentiation can be lost when a name is transliterated to English using the Roman alphabet... it's hard to encode 100,000+ characters into 26 letters and some accents. Probably not a big deal when you're talking about famous people (Mao the dictator), but certainly there are a lot of ordinary Zhang Weis that could be confused for each other, especially if they use the same characters in Chinese too. Speaking more generally, I believe the traditional Chinese culture emphasizes collective harmony over stand-out individualism, so the relative lack of individual uniqueness is probably not as big an issue. Fame is not something in and of itself worth seeking, or at least wasn't until recently -- the younger generations can seek individuality more than their ancestors. One Western author's take on it: https://jonlsullivan.com/2016/11/04/china-and-celebrity-politics/ https://jonlsullivan.com/2016/11/04/china-and-celebrity-poli... But, back to the topic at hand, the problem of differentiating Chinese individuals is more a problem of how English speakers identify them than how they identify themselves to each other, in their native language and context. It's a weakness of transliteration and encoding.