There are 3 ways of dealing with Chinese names in the western context. Using your example, some people hyphenate the two words, so you end up being Yin-Shen Goh, with Yin-Shen being your name. Most Taiwanese follow this convention when writing their names with alphabets (just look at all the Taiwanese presidents).

The other way is to follow the PRC convention, and make them one "word". So your name will be Yinshen Goh. The only downside is that your name will be mispronounced a bit more than one would like.

Finally, the Malaysian/Singaporean convention is to just switch your name around, so your name is written as Yin Shen Goh. The downside to this is when you are called (in class, bank etc), you end up being Mr Yin Goh, as generally the "shen" is treated as a middle name and not generally used.

Wait till you see the "fun" I have with a English name. I really wish Malaysian passports would have a surname field. But I am aware that the Malay's and Indian's don't have a surname.

Make sure when you apply for universities, you make it very clear that your surname is Goh. I have had experiences where on the SAT the surname is Goh, but when applying to universities, something gets mangled up, and they think that Shen is the surname. If they can't find "Mr Shen"'s SAT results, well, no offer.

Is the middle name compulsory? I don't think so. If I were in that situation (where there are fields for First names, middle names) I would put Angelina Siew Ling as my First name, and leave the middle name blank.

Yeoh will then be the surname.

As I said, it is a mess for those who ethnic Chinese who have a English name. They surname ends up being in the middle, with causes no end of confusion when faced with different cultures.

I personally hate the last convention. I an aware that in the western system, Mr John Adam Smith will become Smith, Adam John when put in the US system. Where the given name is at the right. So it does get mangled when parsed into the Chinese name context, ie "Lee, Edison Yong Seng". You end up being called Mr Seng.

I really think it all depends on where you are going. In the British system (UK, Australia, New Zealand), making yourself "Edison Yong Seng Lee" hasn't given me any problems thus far.

A good convention in academia, is to underline your surname when handing in reports/assignments.

As I said, it does cause some confusion, but not "trouble". I bet the name in your passport is in the format of "Angelina Yeoh Siew Ling". You just have to tell them that "Yeoh" is your surname. 99.9% of the time they would understand. 0.01% of the time they don't really care.

I cannot say for Japan (firstly, AFAIK Alien Registration cards are in Japanese. Do they allow Katakana?), but in Australia and New Zealand, even when dealing with the government they are generally understanding, if you show them the right documentation. Your passport, and to a lesser extent, your student card is the best thing. Generally they should be different columns for Given name and Surname in forms. As long as your are consistent (Ie "Angelina Siew Ling Yeoh") you should be fine.

I have heard of stories of Malaysian's studying in Japan adopting 日本語 names (in 漢字 no less), even if they are not ethnic Chinese (the Japan-JPA program is only open to Bumiputera's).