A mother takes full preventative measures against the coronavirus with her child when attending the 28th International Baby/Children Products Expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday, which is the first expo in Hong Kong after the Hong Kong government announced to reopen exhibitions on September 18. Photo: VCG

A ratio – 1:12 – of mother’s and father’s family names that Chinese newborns had in 2020 from a government report released Monday sparked heated discussion Tuesday on the Chinese internet on whether mothers or fathers should pass their last names to their children, with many netizens showing their support of breaking the tradition of a child inheriting the father’s surname, saying that China is more open to the topic compared to other East Asian countries such as Japan.

“I support children also having family names from their mother’s side. This shows the social progress of gender equality,” said one netizen. “In the past, a woman’s ability to survive was weak and they needed to depend on a man. But times have changed. Women are totally independent now and there is no need to stick to such outdated ways.”

It was echoed by another user, commenting that “a child has the freedom to bear the mother’s or father’s surname as long as both parents agree. Thinking of the extreme pain of childbirth, don’t women have the perfect right to pass their last names to their babies?”

Chinese family names have established the tradition of “children having their father’s surnames” in the thousands of years of historical evolution and national cultural accumulation, according to the report issued by the Ministry of Public Security of China on its website.

However, with the change of Chinese people’s mentalities, particularly after the implementation of the two-child policy in 2016, cases of Chinese children having their mother’s, even grandparents’ last names chosen for them have increased, said the report.

Although some internet users did question the problems that might be brought from having the family names of the mother’s side, such as the process of inheritance and family tracing, they admitted that the freedom to choose surnames is evidence of the development of Chinese society, and are proud of such a change.

According to China’s Marriage Law, women have the right to maintain their own surnames after marriage. And Article 1015 of Chinese Civil Code clearly states that a natural person shall take the surname of either his father or mother.

“I’m truly happy to see China, an old civilization with many traditions, being more open to embrace this topic than some other East Asian countries, such as Japan,” one netizen noted.

In Japan, Article 750 of the Civil Code specifies that a husband and wife must adopt the same family name, which is nearly the only country in the world that has a law with a such requirement. Of all Japanese married couples, 96 percent use the husband’s surname, The Asahi Shimbun previously reported.

Apart from China, another East Asian country, South Korea, also stipulates in its Civil Law that sons and daughters are able to inherit the family name of their mother’s or step-parents’, the Korea Times reported.