More than fifty years ago, when President Truman met Chang Kai-shek, he said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Shek." As a student of Chinese, I laughed at this story, knowing that in Chinese the last name is first. Times have changed, of course, so we now have the savvy (particularly the U.S. President with all his advisers) to know that it should have been, "Nice to meet you, Generalissimo Chang." So, I was surprised when I read the Christian Science Monitor of April 17. I scanned the caption underneath the photo of Jiang Zemin, President of China, donning a yarmulke that stated, "Chinese President Zemin visits the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem during his controversial, yet successful, trip to Israel." Then I read the article, "Israel’s deal with China irks US," and realised "President Zemin" wasn’t just an editorial miss.

After all, times may not have really changed. Several months ago, during a Chinese leadership visit to Texas, I heard a similar error on a National Public Radio article. Even our media, it seems, still regard the Chinese as a foreign commodity. Perhaps, if we want to capture that market of a billion-plus consumers, we need to begin to educate ourselves to their customs and culture, and we should start with the last names. Amy McGhee