On many occasions, the Chinese do not call each other by their full name or last name. When addressing people, it is common practice to use titles like Mr ( xiānshēng in Chinese pronunciation), Mrs (fūren) or Miss (xiǎojiě).The title is placed after the first name, thus Miss Zhuo is Zhuó xiǎojiě in Chinese.
The word xiānshēng, “Mr.”, literally means “first born”, which implies respect. Anyone born before me is older than me, and thus earns my respect due to his age. On some occasions xiānshēng is also used with the meaning of “teacher”.
Women do not change their family name when they get married and that is why Miss Liu, after changing her marital status, will be Mrs Liu. However, in some cases, take Hong Kong or Taiwan for example, if Miss Liu married to Mr. Zhang, then sometimes people may call her Mrs. Zhang, which is Zhang tàitai .
The word xiǎojiě, Miss, is also used when addressing a waitress in a restaurant or a shop assistant. Xiǎo means “little” and jiě stands for “sister”. In some regions of China, waitresses are also called xiǎomèi, which translates into “small little sister”. FúWùYuán is a commonly used word for waitress or waiter, which means “attendant”. Nowadays, the term xiǎojiě is not so often used as before. The reason for this alteration is that the word xiǎojiě has encountered an inflation due to its connotation to sān péi xiǎojiě , those young modern “geishas” who accompany guests in restaurants to sing karaoke.
The term “comrade”, tóngzhì, was widely used in the 70s and 80s, but not so much any more - at least not between colleagues or amongst average Chinese citizens. Instead, in the office, people address their colleagues directly by his/her name. If someone wants to show a close-relationship or an enthusiastic attitude, he/she can address the colleague directly by his/her first name but no one addresses a person by his family name.
Lăo Wáng, “Elder Wang”, or Xiăo Lĭ, “Younger Li” could also be used to show intimacy. Here old and young do not really refer to age as such, but to people’s position or status. Although in many cases these go hand in hand, as professional experience and success are supposed to accumulate steadily according to the years in service.
The word shīfu originally referred to a master of any specific skill, such as a carpenter, calligraphist, martial arts master etc. It contained the meaning of being a teacher, and thus the apprentice or student would call his master shīfu. Nowadays shīfu is commonly used to address, for example, a cab driver.
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