What is a generation name poem? There is no standard length nor format. Generally, however, it follows the traditional Chinese poem structures of grouping in 4′s, 5′s or 7′s. The correct grouping will lend meanings to the poem. Starting in sequent with the first character each denotes a generation. The poem tumbles over and...
This is a listing of the spelling variations of some of Chinese surnames that we know of: 區 Au, Aun, Ou 歐 Au, Aun, Ou 白 Bai, Bak, Pak, Pek, Pack 費 Bei, Bi, Fai, Fay, Fei 薄 Bo, Bok 蔡 Cai, Choi, Choy, Toy, Tsai 曹 Cao, Chao, Cho, Tsao 陳 Chan, Chen,...
It seems every nationality has a few major surnames. With the British the big threes are: Smythe, Jones and Williams. Schultz, Mueller, and Schmidt are the German counterparts. What are the Chinese equivalent? China has not three but four major surnames, Cheung (張), Chiu/Zhao (趙), Lee/Li (李), and Wang (王). They account for 25%...
This started out as a piece on the origin of the Lee/Li surname. A quick check around the internet revealed there are many sites with that information already. It is obvious a much more prudent course of action is for me to channel my energy elsewhere. The Chinese equivalent to surnames is two words...
We really can’t talk about the migration to the Pearl River Delta without going into the exodus from Nanxiong (南雄). And we can’t talk about the exodus from Nanxiong without telling the story of Wu Fei (胡妃). However, there are more than one version of the story. The first is that one of the...
Nanxiong (南雄) county lies in the northeast part of Guangdong province. It has 24 towns and a population of 440,000. Historically, Nanxiong connected Guangdong and Jiangxi which made it the key junction between northern and southern China. It was a marketplace and the central point in the exchange of goods and cultures between Central...
It is human nature that inadvertently the question “how many Chinese surnames are there?” will be ask. It is a fair and legitimate question. With China conducting regular census one would expect this to be no more than a walk in the park. However, this is far from being the case. The best known...
