Insurance man Tom Tungseng Tai suggests a technique for distinguishing these: "The single surname Ch'en is spelt differently according to various dialects." He points out that Chinese from Taiwan spell their name Chen, while those from the mainland spell it Zhen, Singaporeans write Tan and the Vietnamese change it to Cheng.
保險業者戴冬生提供一個辨識的技巧：「同樣姓陳，因為方言的關係，拼音就很不同」，戴先生指出：從台灣來的拼 Chen，大陸則拼成 Zhen，新加坡華人是 Tan，越南就變成了 Cheng。