Some Chinese actors are listed under English names that they don't really use.  Many use Chinese names in pinyin in English advertisements. For example, Disney's official poster for Mulan lists Liu Yifei rather than Crystal.  (see https://movies.disney.com/mulan-2020) For consistency, could we list their Chinese names in pinyin rather than English names they don't really use?

53votes

I 100% agree. Searches for some well known actors/actresses give negative results bc their English name was used. Possibly the absolute worst thing about mdl and it can be irritating.

Or at the least make it so that a search for the pinyin name also searches in the "First Name" and "Family Name" fields so that a search will find the actor even if the profile is listed under his/her English name.

100% agree. I refuse to address them by their english names in comments and feeds. For god's sake they have beautiful, native names and it feels wrong to address them with english names in my opinion. 

Yes, you got votes from me! It's actually hard for me to find some actors and actresses here on MDL. For example, I'd go looking for Yang Zi typing in.. "Yang Zi" with no results of Yang Zi in the first page because she's under "Andy Yang." I don't even think she uses this name enough for us to be using this name. In fact, I didn't know this is her international name until MDL. It should be a commonly used/preferred name. For example, Eric Chou is the name he promotes with/mainly use, but on shows they may still call him, Zhou Xingzhe interchangeably with Eric. So using Eric Chou makes more sense than Zhou Xingzhe. Or like nkdmdl20  mentioned, the search should give us better results. I have no knowledge of which way would be easier but this one seems like it'll require less work from dev team? I do think with Liu Yi Fei, she uses Crystal Liu enough for it to kind of pass for me.

I like the idea of having the native name as the main name for Hong-Kongese/Chinese/Taiwanese actors and actresses. An idea might be to have something like:

' Anita Yuen Wing Yi ' [English name - Last name - Native first name] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Yuen OR

' David Da Wei Yang ' [English name - Native first name - Last name] https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A5%8A%E5%A4%A7%E7%82%BA

I propose the above two options just because A LOT of HK/CH/TW actors have the same name, some with the same characters, or different characters with the same pinyin/jyutping. I personally prefer the first option as both 'Anita Yuen' and 'Yuen Wing Yi' should pop up (I find that profiles don't often pop up when searching by 'aka' names.). It should also be noted that some people have their native names as their middle name (I myself do, and I think this might be true for some actors who were born in a foreign country) - the second option seems more fitting for this. Either way, we should probably choose one or the other (or another suggestion!) for consistency, as we can always add different formats in the 'also known as' section.


On a side note: I do wish that HK/CH/TW contributors would be more proactive in adding both traditional and simplified native names. One of the main reasons is that I think that not doing so is just another opportunity for duplicates to be created and approved (this goes for dramas/movies as well). I know for some people the whole traditional/simplified topic is controversial (HK tends to use traditional, CH - simplified, and I believe TW prefers traditional), but I think that shouldn't be a huge problem for MDL purposes.

If anyone got through this long post, congrats >< Please let me know your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree, as some of my knowledge/reasoning may be incorrect/problematic. (Anyway, got my votes!)

Agree with @olivestulip , or maybe as "Last name - Native first name - English name".

I always having the difficulties to search their name, most of the time, I need to google their name before search from MDL. 

Wholeheartedly agree. It has taken me years to get the correct syntax drummed into my head. It confuses the heck out of me to then find someone listed here as "Fred"!

Every time I come across "Rachel Momo" I cringe. It has nothing to do with her original name Mao Xiao Tong anymore.