The Ministry of Public Security has drafted a law that would allow children to be called by a combination of their parents’ surnames. Officials say a change in the law would reduce confusion.
From the Times Online:
With more than a billion people sharing little more than 100 surnames, Chinese authorities have a problem differentiating, for instance, between the 1.3 million people called Liu Bo.Such is the level of confusion that the Ministry of Public Security wants to change the law to allow parents to create double-barrelled surnames for their children. Currently the law states that children are allowed to take the surname of only their mother or father. [Full Text]