Chinese National Day: How the Diaspora Marks October 1
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong stood on the Tiananmen rostrum in Beijing and proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China. Seventy-seven years later, that date — 国庆节 (Guóqìngjié, "National Celebration Festival") — is marked not only in Tiananmen Square but in the Chinatowns,…
The Lei (雷) Surname: From Ancient Fangshan to the Wuyi Diaspora
Roughly 3.7 million people in the world today answer to the surname Lei (雷) — a name that means "thunder" and, in the oldest stories, carries the weight of it. It is not among China's largest surnames; by population it sits somewhere around the…
Zhongshan County Guide: The Diaspora's Overlooked Home County
Between Guangzhou and Macau, on the western shore of the Pearl River estuary, lies a county that has spent the last 170 years sending its people to sea. Wave after wave of its sons left for Hawaii's sugar fields, Sydney's produce markets, the clan halls of Vancouver…
Three Diaspora Routes: Wuyi, Fujian, and Chaozhou Compared
Ask most people how the overseas Chinese left China, and you will get a single answer: they crossed the Pacific to work the goldfields and build the railroads. That is true — but it is only one of the answers, and it is the newest one. Long…
Yamen 1279: The Battle That Ended the Song Dynasty
The End of a Dynasty
For three hundred years the Song dynasty (宋朝, Sòng cháo) had been the most advanced state of its age — the world's largest cities, the invention of movable type and gunpowder, a civil service that prized learning over birth. And when…
The Yuan (袁) Surname: From the State of Chen to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Name Before the Place
Most Chinese surnames are named for a place. A king granted a fief; the family took the fief's name; the name outlived the fief. The surname Yuan (袁姓, Yuán xìng) did not begin this way. It began…
The Pan (潘) Surname: From the State of Pan to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Pan surname traces to two royal lineages of ancient China. The first descends from the ruling house of the State of Pan (潘国, Pānguó), a small vassal polity of the Zhou period whose princes shared the blood of the Zhou kings;…
The Zeng (曾) Surname: From Confucian Lineage to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Sage's Name: The Kingdom That Became the Surname
The Zeng (曾, Zēng) surname carries a Confucian pedigree no other Wuyi surname can claim: its first ancestor is 曾子 (Zēngzǐ, Zengzi), the disciple Confucius made the model of filial piety and later canonized as…
The Li (黎) Surname: From the Ancient State of Li to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Siyi region of Guangdong sent over two million people overseas between 1840 and 1940 — and among the surnames carried in that great crossing was 黎 (Li), a name whose written form had already endured for over two thousand years,…
The Tan (谭) Surname: From an Ancient State of Shandong to the Wuyi Diaspora
In the winter of 684 BCE, an army of the State of Qi marched against its small neighbor and erased it from the map. The State of Tan (谭国, Tán Guó) — a minor polity in today's Zhangqiu, Shandong, whose old…