Illiterate Chinese immigrants may also constitute my ancestors who have transliterated their name as "Wong" although they are now rich businessmen in Bangkok. There are many dialects of Chinese where it indeed sounds more like Wong. For example, most of the Chinese immigrants to Thailand speak what is called Dtha-Jiu dialect. I don't even know how to transliterate it myself, but they assure me it is pronounced more like "Wong" in this dialect.

Propp, you should learn Chinese(Mandarin, I presume?) Really it will be very good. You and I will travel to Nanking together. Yes? And you will be able to offer English-Russian-Chinese translating services, think of the opportunity! Such a trip is good example of "русское зарубежье." We can write a joint manuscript of our amazing adventure in China.

I imagine the tone system must be hard for you! Are you learning the characters too? You know, I have a very excellent book which teaches the meaning of each of the root radicals and how they are combined into a whole to form characters...