Why do we write the names of Vietnamese and Thai people the wrong way in English newspapers?

In Vietnam, people address each other using first names, not last names. A woman named Nguyen Thu Thuy, (Nguyen being last name and Thuy first name) for example, will be addressed with full name on first reference, and with first name Thuy (or Ms Thuy) after that. Thus, addressing Nguyen Thu Thuy as Thuy on Western media actually conforms to Vietnamese practices. Why Vietnamese people address by first name and not last names (surnames): There are only about 200 Vietnamese surnames; to make it even worse, 13 most popular surnames make up 90% of the population. Using surnames when addressing was simply impractical. While Chinese naming is somehow similar, with a limited set of surnames, the distribution is wider, and the disparity is also comparatively higher (100 most common Chinese surnames make up 85% of the population), so addressing by surnames in China is more feasible. There are exceptions for that "first name rule" though: An established practice is to use surnames when addressing certain revered historical personalities (there is no rules to decide which personalities deserve that privilege, though): - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh was Uncle Ho - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton_Duc_Thang was Uncle Tôn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem was President Ngô (but his brother http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Nhu was Mr Nhu, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Van_Thieu was President Thieu, both are customarily addressed by first names). - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Boi_Chau was Elder Phan (but without the context, it can be confused with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Chu_Trinh, a contemporary nationalist). Addressing by surnames is an archaic custom, adopted from China and used to be practiced among Confucian elite scholars. As a result, it can also be used to show respect  to personalities other than those mentioned above, but only when the context is clear enough to avoid potential confusion. For example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Du can be address as Mr Nguyen in a context that mentioned him, even though the surname Nguyen make up 40% of the population of Vietnam. Paradoxically, in some context, addressing by surnames can also be used to make fun! (especially by parodying an faux archaic feeling, and through that evoking a sense of being backward, obsolete, or at least, obsolete). In short, for Vietnamese, the custom is too address people by first name, not last name. I don't know about Thailand, but I guess the issue is similar.

The rule of addressing a person internationally stems from the way people usually see in the media. If names of a certain people are consistently written and said on TV or on the radio or on the Internet then that pattern sticks.That applies to the way Asian names appear in Western media. The Japanese names, for example, are consistently written following the Western given name-family name order, hence they are known as such. Compare Abe Shinzo (family-given) in Japan and Shinzo Abe (given-family) in the US. Japanese people do not mind that thus that rule sticks.Other East Asian names such as Chinese, Vietnamese or Korean are consistently written and said following the family name-given name order, which is the opposite of the West. The President of China is invariably known as Xi Jinping; it is strange to call him Jinping Xi. Chinese, Vietnamese or Korean find that ok so in Western media their names are written so.The same applies to the way people are addressed. Thai and Vietnamese generally do not find it offensive to be addressed using their given names. A Vietnamese woman named Nguyen Thu Thuy has given name Thu Thuy, shortened to Thuy for short. She would not mind being called Mrs. Thuy. This is due to common Southeast Asian tradition to call people by their given name(s). I, for one, did not know the family name of my Indonesian friend until recently. Nor did I know that of my Thai friend.In Vietnam the situation is even more complex. First, the majority of Vietnamese have one of the most common 15 family names, and about 40% have the most common family name Nguyen. Second, Vietnamese typically do not like saying full names in normal situation. So, Vietnamese tend to use given names mostly, to the point of forgetting the others' surname.Many Vietnamese, however, like to be called by their family name. That is not limited to Hồ Chí Minh, Tôn Đức Thắng, Ngô Đình Diệm, Phan Bội Châu, Phân Châu Trinh, Trịnh Công Sơn etc. It is not simply an archaic custom, but rather an emphasis on the family rather than the individual. It appears that only after the 1950s that people tend to refer to themselves with their given name and call others as such. Whatever the era, however, in formal context it is customary for Vietnamese to address others in full names or to use titles like chủ tịch (president), giáo sư (professor), tiến sĩ (doctor) and so on.So, it is not wrong in the English newspapers to use Vietnamese given name as a style of address. However, it is important to address that person's full name first before using the given name alone. Some Vietnamese prefer to use their family name in the professional context, however, and that too must be respected. I, for one, always use my family name and only a few know my given name.