Chinese Surnames Obsolete?

[Ramseth]

Have the Chinese surnames, historically conferred on common families by royal families, outgrown it's purpose and become obsolete? Surnames are supposed to be used for identifying belonging to families and lineages. However, does it serve the purpose anymore?

Any congregration of the various Tans, Lims, Lees or Gohs etc. easily outnumber entire populations of mid-sized countries. The Koreans and Vietnamese have adopted the Chinese surname system too. Most of them are Lees, Kims, Parks or Ngyuens. Meaningless for family identification.