最近和一位学友交谈，她问该怎么称呼我。这让我觉得有必要和大家分享一下中文中我们如何称呼对方。这里我主要谈一下同辈、同事及朋友之间的称呼。

比如，我叫王小明，我有个女同事叫张小兰。

我可以称呼她：张小兰或小兰，称呼小兰听起来更加亲近一些。在有些地方人们会叫张。这些称呼都可以。

还可以称呼她 兰，但一般只有她丈夫/老公，她的长辈，或者他非常亲近的女性朋友才可以这么称呼。其他人，尤其是男性的话，如果这么称呼很可能会被误解成和她有男女关系。

同样，张小兰一般叫我：王小明或小明。只要我老婆才会叫我明。有的地方他们会叫我王。

最后，中文中姓放在前面，名放在后面。也许是认为家族的重要性优先于个人。姓通常是一个字，比如：周、张、李等等，但也有复姓的，比如：欧阳、诸葛等等。名的话，有单个的名，比如“李明”中“李”是姓，“明”是单字的名。也有两个字的名，比如上面的张小兰中的“小兰”就是两个字的名。

如果大家有关于中国文化的问题可以联系我。

Recently I chatted with a learning partner from the Mixxer and she asked how she should call me. I feel the ned to share with you all how we call each other in Chinese, between peers, colleagues and friends. (There are other cases when you call superiors or elderly people but we won't talk about that this time.)

Let's say, my name is Wang Xiaoming and I have a female colleague named Zhang Xiaolan. I can call her: Zhang Xiaolan, or Xiao Lan, with the latter sounding closer. In some places (probably in norther China), people will call her Zhang. All will do.

You can be called Lan, but nornally only her husband, her parents and senior relatives, or her close female friends will do. Anybody else, especially of the other gender, calling her Lan will imply an intimate relationship.

Same way, Zhang Xiaolan can call me: Wang Xiaoming, or Xiaoming. Only my wife calls me Ming. In some cases, my parents or senior relatives might call me Ming. In northern China, people might call me Zhang only.

Finally, in Chinese the family name comes first, followed by the given name. It's probably in our culture, the family is placed in a higher position than individuals.

Usually, the family name is a single-character name, like Zhou, Zhang, Li, etc. But there are double or even triple character family names, like Ouyang, Zhuge, etc. As for the given name, there are single-character name, as "Ming" in Li Ming. There are double-character given names, like "Xiaolan" in Zhang Xiaolan.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding Chinese culture.