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Pete L. Clark
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By the way, I am Chinese, so there is perhaps more overlap in last names.

Perhaps? Come on. Any worldly person who is paying attention knows that the ratio of people to surnames is orders of magnitude higher in China than in most Western countries. There are more than 1.3 billion Chinese (i.e., citizens of the PRC) and only slightly over 4,000 Chinese surnames, 100 of which account for about 85% of China's population. A 2007 survey reports approximately 92,881,000 Chinese with the surname Wang: more than 7 percent of the population. (Only about 1% of Americans have the surname Smith, and it drops off much more rapidly from there.)

I completely agree with @Corvus's answer: with a two word parenthetical expression any writer can allay all concerns in this regard, and it is probably a good idea to do so. (When I describe work of other mathematicians named "Clark" -- and, because I am ever tolerant of the imperfections of others, "Clarke" -- I generally do say "no relation".) But a Chinese person who is expressly worried about this seems almost a little weird. You're Chinese, not Macedonian: even we Americans know a thing or two about where you're from.

Pete L. Clark
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