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 Gong (龚) Surname: From Ancient Water Gods to the Taishan Diaspora
Few surnames in China's top hundred carry a longer remembered past — or a stranger one — than the Gong surname (龚, gōng): roughly 2.5 to 3 million bearers, ranked near 89th in the 2018 household-registry count; a name spelled Gong in pinyin,…
Chinese in Canada Before the Head Tax: BC Gold Rush, Victoria, and the Road to 1885
For roughly a quarter-century — from the spring of 1858 until the summer of 1885 — a Chinese migrant could walk off a ship in British Columbia and simply enter. No tax at the door, no certificate to carry,…
The Chung Yeung Festival: Autumn Grave-Sweeping and Ancestor Veneration in the Wuyi Diaspora
On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, China marks Chung Yeung — the Double Ninth Festival (重阳节, Chóngyáng Jié) — the autumn grave-sweeping festival. In 2026, the day falls on Sunday, October 18. It is the last of the traditional…
Cuban Chinese: The Coolie Ships, Havana's Chinatown, and the Caribbean Diaspora
When the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended, the world's plantations did not suddenly go quiet. Sugar still had to be cut, cane still had to be milled, and the price of a cup of coffee in London or a bowl of sugar in Boston still…
The Liao (廖) Surname: From a Xia-Dynasty State to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Name from Before Writing
The Liao (廖, Liào) surname is one of the few Chinese surnames whose story begins before writing. It traces itself to 叔安 (Shū'ān, Shu'an), lord of the ancient 飂 state in the Xia dynasty, whose state name became…
How to Find Your Family's Qiaopi Letters: A Hands-On Guide to Wuyi Remittance Archives
Between roughly 1850 and 1950, millions of men from the Siyi (四邑) and Wuyi (五邑) counties of Guangdong left for the gold fields, railroads, laundries, and kitchens of North America, Australia, and Southeast Asia — and many of them wrote home.…
Chinese Restaurant History: How Wuyi Immigrants Built America's Chop Suey Houses
The Storefront That Opened a Door
The Siyi region of Guangdong sent more than two million people overseas between 1840 and 1940. Among the things they built in America — railroads, mines, laundries — the most enduring proved to be the corner restaurant. Chinese…
Chinese Immigration Records in Canada: How to Find Your Wuyi Ancestor
The Records Exist — And Your Ancestor Is Probably in Them
In 1885, Canada began writing down every Chinese person who arrived on its shores. Not a list of suspects — an administrative record, kept by federal officials at the ports, of who came,…
The Chinese Hand Laundry: How Wuyi Immigrants Built an American Icon (1850s–1940s)
The Signature Trade of Chinese America
Of all the occupations that shaped Chinese America, none was more widespread — or more misunderstood — than the Chinese hand laundry (洗衣业, xǐyī yè). For a century it was the country's most iconic Chinese trade: born…