In addition to the reasons given by others, Chinese culture is accustomed to associate multiple names to a person, a name given by the parents when young, nickname among friends, another name when one enters adulthood, a pen name when one publishes something. Having a Christian name is just another one that makes life easier in another culture setting.
Indians shorten their names sometime to make it easier for others to pronounce. I have Indian friends who have really long names that I couldn't pronounce fully and they all said just use the short names.
>In addition to the reasons given by others, Chinese culture is accustomed to associate multiple names to a person, a name given by the parents when young, nickname among friends, another name when one enters adulthood, a pen name when one publishes something.
If you have a 字 or a 號 in this century (or even most of the last), you're very odd.
Indians shorten their names sometime to make it easier for others to pronounce. I have Indian friends who have really long names that I couldn't pronounce fully and they all said just use the short names.