First name?

im a fan of this actress, but everytime i see her name in credits or somewhere, it shows as Zhang Yiyi, or Yiyi Zhang. which is her first name, im just curious about it for some reason and i need to know =p





she also played as the asian women, the bad one in the movie Rush Hour 2.

First name?
In China, people refer to their surname first before their given name in respect to their fathers or ancestors.





Zhang Ziyi ( I love her in Memoirs of a Geisha), therefore has Zhang as the surname and Ziyi as the given name. Some movie credits interchange the names depending on whether they'd like to follow the English format or they want to retain the Chinese format.





Sammo Hung and Chow Yun Fat also retained their Chinese names but other celebrities found the need to change their names or adapt an English name to make it easier for their audience to recall and say it.





Bruce Lee (real name: Lee Hsiao Lung), Jackie Chan (real name: Chan Kong-Sang) and Jet Li (real name: Li Lian Jie or Li Nin Kit, depends if you want it Mandarin or Cantonese) had to adapt a Western name when they broke through the Western film industry. Good thing though, coz it will be a mouthful and a tounge twister for us who are not used to the Chinese language if we try to pronounce their real names
Reply:Zhang Ziyi.I believe in China names are written/pronounced backwards.So her 1st name would be Ziyi.
Reply:shes like a really famous actress and zhang is her last name so ziyi would be her first