Chicago-style citations of CJK documents (e.g. American Oriental Society): Name order; transcribed/translated titles

For problem (1), the nameaddon field can hold the CJK name for only a single author. This approach is no good for works by multiple authors and name lists in other fields, such as editor. One way around this is to reserve the name affix for the CJK name:

author = {Li, 李无未, Wuwei and Keane, Michael}

and modify the name formatting directives. This is somewhat awkward and you'll have to characterize "real" name affixes in order to properly format names like "Robert Griffin III" and "Lon Chaney Junior". A rudimentary \ifnameaffix test is used in the example below.

For problem (2), using the titleaddon field for the CJK title is probably the way to go for biblatex-chicago styles. Punctuation between the title and the title add-on is tangled up in a bunch of different formats, drivers and macros. One possible way out is to use \nopunct in the title formatting directives.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xeCJK}
\setCJKmainfont{SimSun}
% Sets uniquelist=minyear and uniquename=minfull
\usepackage[authordate,backend=biber,bibencoding=utf8]{biblatex-chicago}

% List of name affixes excluding Roman numerals
\forcsvlist{\listadd\nameaffixlist}{Junior,Senior}

\newcommand{\ifnameaffix}[1]{%
  \ifboolexpr{ test {\ifrmnum{#1}} or test {\ifinlist{#1}{\nameaffixlist}} }}

% Based on definitions from biblatex.def    
\DeclareNameFormat{labelname}{%
  \ifboolexpr{ test {\ifblank{#7}} or test {\ifnameaffix{#7}} }
    {\ifcase\value{uniquename}%
       \usebibmacro{name:last}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}%
     \or
       \ifuseprefix
         {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#8}}
         {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#4}{#6}{#8}}%
     \or
       \usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}%
     \fi}%
    {\ifnumequal{\value{uniquename}}{0}%
       {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{#1}{}{}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{#1}{#3}{}}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}

\DeclareNameFormat{first-last}{%
  \ifboolexpr{ test {\ifblank{#7}} or test {\ifnameaffix{#7}} }
    {\iffirstinits
       {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{#1}{#3}{#7}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}

\DeclareNameFormat{last-first}{%
  \ifboolexpr{ test {\ifblank{#7}} or test {\ifnameaffix{#7}} }
    {\iffirstinits
       {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
       {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{#1}{#3}{#7}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}

\DeclareNameFormat{last-first/first-last}{%
  \ifboolexpr{ test {\ifblank{#7}} or test {\ifnameaffix{#7}} }
    {\ifnumequal{\value{listcount}}{1}
       {\iffirstinits
          {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
          {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}}%
        \ifblank{#3#5}
          {}
          {\usebibmacro{name:revsdelim}}}
       {\iffirstinits
          {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
          {\usebibmacro{name:first-last}{#1}{#3}{#5}{#7}}}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:cjk}{#1}{#3}{#7}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}

\newbibmacro*{name:cjk}[3]{%
  \usebibmacro{name:delim}{#2#3#1}%
  \usebibmacro{name:hook}{#2#3#1}%
  \mkbibnamelast{#1}%
  \ifblank{#2}{}{\bibnamedelimd\mkbibnamefirst{#2}}%
  \ifblank{#3}{}{\bibnamedelimd\mkbibnameaffix{#3}}}

% Based on definitions from biblatex-chicago cbx    
\DeclareFieldFormat[book]{title}{%
  \mkbibemph{#1}%
  \iffieldundef{titleaddon}{\isdot}{\nopunct}}

\DeclareFieldFormat{booktitle}{%
  \mkbibemph{#1}%
  \iffieldundef{booktitleaddon}{}{\nopunct}}

\DeclareFieldFormat{maintitle}{%
  \mkbibemph{#1}%
  \iffieldundef{maintitleaddon}{}{\nopunct}}

\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{title}{%
  \iffieldundef{title}{}{\mkbibquote{#1}}%
  \iffieldundef{titleaddon}{\isdot}{\nopunct}}

\DeclareFieldFormat{usere}{\mkbibparens{#1}}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{zhaos,
  title={A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism},
  author={Zhao, Suisheng},
  isbn={9780804750011},
  year={2004},
  publisher={Stanford University Press}}
@article{zhaoj,
  author = {Zhao, 赵杰, Jie},
  title = {Qingdai Manwen de wenzi tese ji yinyun, yinbian tedian},
  titleaddon = {清代满文的文字特色及音韵、音变特点},
  usere = {Scriptual specificities of Manchu writing in the Qing period
           and characteristics of phonology and sound change},
  shorttitle = {Manwen de wenzi tese},
  journal = {Manzu yanjiu},
  volume = {102},
  number = {1},
  date = {2011},
  pages = {7--12}}
@book{li,
  author = {Li, 李无未, Wuwei and Brown, Junior, Bob and Doe, III, John},
  publisher = {Shangwu yinshuguan},
  address = {Beijing},
  title = {Riben Hanyu yinyun xue shi},
  titleaddon = {日本汉语音韵学史},
  usere = {History of the study of Chinese phonology in Japan},
  date = {2011}}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\noindent
\textcite{li,zhaos,zhaoj} \\
\citeauthor{li,zhaos,zhaoj} \\
\fullcite{li,zhaos,zhaoj}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

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A few notes:

  • CJK names are not responsive to firstinits, but it is straightforward to make them so.
  • Name disambiguation only considers the first and last parts of a person's name, not the affix. This is convenient for handling two ambiguous CJK names, but perhaps not ideal for ambiguities between CJK and non-CJK names (see the example).
  • The name affix approach redefines generic formatting directives from biblatex.def. So it should work for a variety of styles.
  • The formatting changes to handle the title add-on approach are very specific to biblatex-chicago. They have little use in other styles.