Q. In your interview with Bai Ling from the Hawaii festival, you wrote: "I have seen Bai Ling many times in the movies, often billed as Ling Bai. In China, the practice is to put the family name first and the given name second. So properly she should be referred to as Ling Bai, right?

"'Your theory is correct, but you have one thing wrong,' I am told by Liwei Kiumra, the China expert of the Hawaii festival. 'Ling is her first name.' Therefore, Bai Ling. Everyone who has it wrong has it right."

Congratulations, Roger! You could not have been any more confusing! What does "properly" mean in that context? Properly for the Asians or properly for us? And what does Mr. Kiumra mean when he says "first name"? Does he mean family name or given name? And while we're at it, is it Mr. Kiumra or Mr. Liwei?

Alexandre Rowe, Montreal

A. It's Ms. Liwei Kiumra, because that's what it says on her card. As for Bai Ling's name order, of course by "first," she means "given." Whenever I review an Asian movie, this question arises in exchanges with the copy editors, because if you use the accepted Asian word order, Western readers get confused; should I write "Li Gong" when everybody in the West thinks of "Gong Li"? Consulting the reviews of "Raise the Red Lantern," for example, I find that the New York Times, Washington Post and Variety use "Gong Li," and director "Zhang Yimou," but the Internet Movie Database, which always follows local usage, has "Li Gong" and "Yimou Zhang."