Chinese guardian lions However, Chinese reference to the guardian lions are seldom prefixed with 佛 or 福, and more importantly never referred to as "dogs". Reference to guardian lions as dogs in Western cultures may be due to the Japanese reference to them as "Korean dogs" (狛犬・高麗犬) due to their transmission from China through Korea into Japan. It may also be due to the misidentification of the guardian lion figures as representing certain Chinese dog breeds such as the Chow Chow (鬆獅犬, Pinyin: sōngshī quǎn, lit. "puffy-lion dog") or Pekingese (獅子狗; Pinyin: Shīzi Gǒu, lit. "lion dog"). The lions are traditionally carved from
Malaysian names example, "Denise Foo"), and some use this in preference to a Chinese given name. Most of these are used by Chinese Malaysian Christians, or Chinese who primarily speak English. On official documents, this name is either written in the order "Western given name - surname - Chinese given name" (e.g., Denise Foo Li Leen) or "surname - Chinese given name - Western given name" (e.g., Foo Li Leen Denise), "or Western given name - Chinese given name - surname" (e.g., Denise Li Leen Foo). In general practice, only one of the given names (the Western or Chinese name) is used.