How to Read a Chinese Zupu: A Diaspora Descendant’s Guide

How to Read a Chinese Zupu: A Diaspora Descendant's Guide The Book That Was Written for You Every few years, someone inherits a book they cannot read. Thread-bound, paper soft with age, characters printed vertically in a classical Chinese no one in the family studied. It is a zupu (族谱 zúpǔ) — a clan genealogy,…

3 days ago0Comments

BySteven

Labor Migration Migration History

Coolie Trade Ships and the Americas: Cuba, Peru, Jamaica

Coolie Trade Ships and the Americas: Cuba, Peru, Jamaica The Crossing Between 1847 and 1874, roughly a quarter of a million men from the Wuyi (五邑, Wǔyì) counties of Guangdong were carried across the Pacific under contracts that made them neither fully free nor fully enslaved. They went to the sugar plantations of Cuba, the…

August 4, 20260Comments

BySteven

qiaoxiang-stories village-deep-dives

Enping: The Wuyi Corner Few Diaspora Know

Between 1840 and 1940, over two million people left the five counties of the Wuyi (五邑) region in southern Guangdong — one of the largest sustained regional migrations in modern history. Taishan (台山) sent its sons to build the transcontinental railroad and fill San Francisco's Chinatown. Kaiping (开平) raised diaolou towers with Canadian gold and…

July 30, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Feng (冯) Surname: From Northern Yan Dynasty to the Wuyi Diaspora

Three thousand years ago, a Zhou Dynasty prince received a fiefdom in the northern plains of what is now Hebei Province. The territory was called Fengcheng (冯城) — Feng City — and when Bi Gong Gao (毕公高), the fifteenth son of King Wen of Zhou (周文王), took up residence there, his descendants adopted the place…

July 24, 20260Comments

BySteven

Yunhuan Lou and Qiuanjulu Mansion in Zili Diaolou Village, Tangkou Township, Kaiping, Guangdong — UNESCO World Heritage site. These fortified watchtowers blending Chinese and Western architecture are the most visible legacy of Wuyi overseas Chinese wealth. Photographed with Canon EOS 60D.

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Xu (许) Surname: 3,100 Years from the State of Xu to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Name That Carried 3,100 Years In the eleventh century before the Common Era, a man named Wen Shu (文叔) knelt before King Wu of Zhou and received a fiefdom in the fertile plains of what is now Henan province. The new territory was called Xu (许). Wen Shu traced his lineage to the legendary…

July 21, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Wang Surname: 3,100 Years from Zhou Dynasty Royalty to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Name That Means "King" The Wang surname — 王 (Wáng), simply the Chinese character for "king" — is the second most common surname in the world. One hundred and one million people in China carry it, and an estimated six to eight million more overseas trace their ancestry through it. It is not an…

July 21, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The He（何） Surname: 3,000 Years from Ancient Han State to the Wuyi Diaspora

In 230 BCE, the armies of Qin entered the capital of the state of Han (韩国). Han, smallest and most vulnerable of the seven Warring States, was the first to fall in the Qin unification campaign. Most royal houses that resisted Qin were exterminated. But members of the Han royal family escaped. Fleeing south from…

July 17, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Ma （马） Surname: From Fubo General to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Ma surname (马, "horse") is one of the rare Chinese surnames derived not from a place or a clan but from an official military title — and the martial character encoded in that single character has shaped one of China's most resilient lineages for over two thousand years. During the Warring States period (475–221…

July 17, 20260Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

Chen Surname: Meaning, Origin, and China’s Most Common Family Name

Water Has Ten Thousand Branches but One Source 56| In 1225 on a hillside in northern Guangdong, one man gathered his family and made a pact. His name was 陈辉 (Chén Huī), honorifically called 凤台公 (Fèngtái Gōng, Honorable Fengtai). He was a Song-dynasty jinshi (进士), the highest imperial examination degree, who served as Imperial…

July 13, 20260Comments

BySteven

The historic gateway of Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong, Guangdong — the narrow alley through which 33 surnames including Zhou migrated south during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Zhou (周) Surname: Three Thousand Years from China’s Longest Dynasty to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Longest Dynasty The Zhou (周) Dynasty ruled China for nearly eight hundred years — longer than the Roman Empire, longer than any European royal house, longer than most civilizations last at all. From 1046 BCE to 256 BCE, the Zhou kings held the Mandate of Heaven (天命, Tiānmìng), the divine right to rule that…

July 10, 20260Comments

BySteven

Haiyan Overseas Chinese Farm:...

The Meijia Courtyard of Duanf...

The Women Who Left: Chinese F...

Hong Kong’s Hidden Depa...

Letters Across the South Chin...

Tag: Chinese Diaspora

Haiyan Overseas Chinese Farm:...

The Meijia Courtyard of Duanf...

The Women Who Left: Chinese F...

Hong Kong’s Hidden Depa...

Letters Across the South Chin...

How to Read a Chinese Zupu: A Diaspora Descendant’s Guide

Coolie Trade Ships and the Americas: Cuba, Peru, Jamaica

Enping: The Wuyi Corner Few Diaspora Know

The Feng (冯) Surname: From Northern Yan Dynasty to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Xu (许) Surname: 3,100 Years from the State of Xu to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Wang Surname: 3,100 Years from Zhou Dynasty Royalty to the Wuyi Diaspora

The He（何） Surname: 3,000 Years from Ancient Han State to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Ma （马） Surname: From Fubo General to the Wuyi Diaspora

Chen Surname: Meaning, Origin, and China’s Most Common Family Name

The Zhou (周) Surname: Three Thousand Years from China’s Longest Dynasty to the Wuyi Diaspora

Haiyan Overseas Chinese Farm:...

The Meijia Courtyard of Duanf...

The Women Who Left: Chinese F...

Hong Kong’s Hidden Depa...

Letters Across the South Chin...

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