Indexing East Asian Names--Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

The article focuses on the conventions for indexing East Asian names—specifically Chinese, Korean, and Japanese—in bibliographic and reference works. It explains that these names traditionally present the surname first followed by the given name, without inversion or commas, which contrasts with Western naming order. The article outlines strategies for identifying surnames and determining whether names are in traditional or Westernized order, emphasizing the importance of consistency within the text and consulting bibliographies. It also addresses challenges such as common surnames, romanization differences (notably between Wade-Giles and Pinyin for Chinese), and sorting issues when mixing inverted and uninverted names, recommending word-by-word sorting that ignores commas. The guidance aims to help indexers accurately represent East Asian names while respecting cultural naming practices. [Extracted from the article]