Order of First/Last Name in biblatex, Chinese Conventions

Question

I just realized, for a long time I used the wrong citation format when citing Chinese names. English publications usually romanize Chinese names while retaining their order, see here, i.e., Family name comes first followed by the Given name. How do I accomplish this with a biblatex style?

Take the following entry where "Li" is the Family name and "Wei" is the given name. When referring to the author in full I write "Li Wei claims that ..." but when citing, the family name (Li 2018) should be used. This is the entry:

@article{Li:2018,
    author = {Li Wei},
    date = {2018},
    journaltitle = {Applied Linguistics},
    number = {1},
    pages = {9--30},
    title = {Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language},
    volume = {39}}

So in-text citations should be like this (Li 2018, 19), or this when citing Li (2018).

The bibliography entry should show up like this (assuming biblatex-chicago "author-date" here):

Li Wei. 2018. “Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language.” Applied Linguistics 39 (1): 9--30.

It'll be even trickier with two-authored pieces where only one author uses Chinese naming conventions.

@article{Li+Milroy:1995,
    author = {Li Wei and Milroy, Lesley},
    date = {1995},
    journaltitle = {Journal of Pragmatics},
    number = {3},
    pages = {281--299},
    title = {Conversational Code-Switching in a {Chinese} Community in {Britain:} A Sequential Analysis},
    volume = {23}}

Li and Milroy (1995) argue that ...

Li Wei, and Lesley Milroy. 1995. “Conversational Code-Switching in a Chinese Community in Britain: A Sequential Analysis.” Journal of Pragmatics 23 (3): 281–299.

but this shouldn't affect how other entries are displayed, e.g., for Milroy and Milroy (1992):

Milroy, Lesley, and James Milroy. 1992. “Social Network and Social Class: Toward an Integrated Sociolinguistic Model.” Language in Society 21 (1): 1–26.

Any ideas how to do that?

Answer 1

For a one-off it is probably easiest to force the name order of the full name with curly braces and fill the shortauthor field with just the family name.

\documentclass[american]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[backend=biber, authordate]{biblatex-chicago}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{Li:2018,
  author       = {{Li Wei}},
  shortauthor  = {Li},
  date         = {2018},
  journaltitle = {Applied Linguistics},
  number       = {1},
  pages        = {9--30},
  title        = {Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language},
  volume       = {39},
}
@article{Li+Milroy:1995,
  author       = {{Li Wei} and Milroy, Lesley},
  shortauthor  = {Li and Milroy, Lesley},
  date         = {1995},
  journaltitle = {Journal of Pragmatics},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {281--299},
  title        = {Conversational Code-Switching in a {Chinese} Community in {Britain}:
                  A Sequential Analysis},
  volume       = {23},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{sigfridsson}
ipsum \autocite{Li:2018}
dolor \autocite{Li+Milroy:1995}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

---

For a more comprehensive treatment of non-Western names you can make use of biblatex's extended name format. As luck would have it, for east Asian names and biblatex-chicago this was already done in CJK Bibliography Problem, Biblatex-Chicago author-date style, so we can just copy the code.

The advantage of this approach is that you do not have to duplicate name data in the same entry and that all name disambiguation features continue to work as intended. The disadvantage is the arguably more clunky input format.

\documentclass[american]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\begin{filecontents}{chicago-authordate.dbx}
\ProvidesFile{chicago-authordate.dbx}[2016/07/24 extended name format for biblatex]
\DeclareDatamodelConstant[type=list]{nameparts}{prefix,family,suffix,given,cjk}
\end{filecontents}
\usepackage[authordate,backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}
\DeclareSortingNamekeyTemplate[cjk]{
  \keypart{
    \namepart{family}
  }
  \keypart{
    \namepart{given}
  }
  \keypart{
    \namepart{cjk}
  }
}
\DeclareUniquenameTemplate[cjk]{
  \namepart[base=true]{family}
  \namepart[disambiguation=full]{given}
  \namepart[disambiguation=full]{cjk}
}
\newbibmacro*{name:cjk}[3]{%
  \usebibmacro{name:delim}{#2#3#1}%
  \usebibmacro{name:hook}{#2#3#1}%
  \mkbibnamefamily{#1}%
  \ifdefvoid{#2}{}{\bibnamedelimd\mkbibnamegiven{#2}}%
  \ifdefvoid{#3}{}{\bibnamedelimd\mkbibnamecjk{#3}}}
\newbibmacro{labelname:western}{%
  \ifcase\value{uniquename}%
    \usebibmacro{name:family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}%
  \or
    \ifuseprefix
      {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
        {\namepartfamily}
        {\namepartgiveni}
        {\namepartprefix}
        {\namepartsuffixi}}
      {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
        {\namepartfamily}
        {\namepartgiveni}
        {\namepartprefixi}
        {\namepartsuffixi}}%
  \or
    \usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}%
  \fi
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}
\newbibmacro{labelname:cjk}{%
  \iffieldequalstr{uniquepart}{base}%
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}
       {\namepartfamily}
       {\empty}
       {\empty}}
    {\iffieldequalstr{uniquepart}{given}%
       {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}
          {\namepartfamily}
          {\namepartgiven}
          {\empty}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}
          {\namepartfamily}
          {\namepartgiven}
          {\namepartcjk}}}}
\DeclareNameFormat{labelname}{%
  \ifuniquenametemplatename{cjk}
    {\usebibmacro{labelname:cjk}}
    {\usebibmacro{labelname:western}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}
\DeclareNameFormat{family-given}{%
  \ifsortingnamekeytemplatename{cjk}
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{\namepartfamily}{\namepartgiven}{\namepartcjk}}
    {\ifgiveninits
        {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
           {\namepartfamily}
           {\namepartgiveni}
           {\namepartprefix}
           {\namepartsuffix}}
        {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
           {\namepartfamily}
           {\namepartgiven}
           {\namepartprefix}
           {\namepartsuffix}}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}
\DeclareNameFormat{given-family}{%
  \ifsortingnamekeytemplatename{cjk}
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{\namepartfamily}{\namepartgiven}{\namepartcjk}}
    {\ifgiveninits
       {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
         {\namepartfamily}
         {\namepartgiveni}
         {\namepartprefix}
         {\namepartsuffix}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
         {\namepartfamily}
         {\namepartgiven}
         {\namepartprefix}
         {\namepartsuffix}}}%
    \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}
\DeclareNameFormat{family-given/given-family}{%
  \ifsortingnamekeytemplatename{cjk}
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{\namepartfamily}{\namepartgiven}{\namepartcjk}}
    {\ifnumequal{\value{listcount}}{1}
        {\ifgiveninits
           {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
             {\namepartfamily}
             {\namepartgiveni}
             {\namepartprefix}
             {\namepartsuffix}}
          {\usebibmacro{name:family-given}
             {\namepartfamily}
             {\namepartgiven}
             {\namepartprefix}
             {\namepartsuffix}}
         \ifboolexpe{%
                     test {\ifdefvoid\namepartgiven}
                     and
                     test {\ifdefvoid\namepartprefix}}
           {}
           {\usebibmacro{name:revsdelim}}}
        {\ifgiveninits
          {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
             {\namepartfamily}
             {\namepartgiveni}
             {\namepartprefix}
             {\namepartsuffix}}
          {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
             {\namepartfamily}
             {\namepartgiven}
             {\namepartprefix}
             {\namepartsuffix}}}}
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{Li:2018,
  author       = {family=Li, given=Wei, nametemplates=cjk},
  date         = {2018},
  journaltitle = {Applied Linguistics},
  number       = {1},
  pages        = {9--30},
  title        = {Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language},
  volume       = {39},
}
@article{Li+Milroy:1995,
  author       = {family=Li, given=Wei, nametemplates=cjk and Milroy, Lesley},
  date         = {1995},
  journaltitle = {Journal of Pragmatics},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {281--299},
  title        = {Conversational Code-Switching in a {Chinese} Community in {Britain}:
                  A Sequential Analysis},
  volume       = {23},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{sigfridsson}
ipsum \autocite{Li:2018}
dolor \autocite{Li+Milroy:1995}
\printbibliography
\end{document}