The Song (宋) Surname: From Weizi's State of Song to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Name That Outlived Every Dynasty
The Song (宋, Sòng) surname descends from 微子启 (Wēizǐ Qǐ, Weizi), a prince of the Shang royal house whose fief — the State of Song (宋国, Sòng guó), founded at Shangqiu (商丘, Shāngqiū) after the Zhou…
The Chinese Head Tax: How Canada Charged Wuyi Migrants
The Price of Entry
Canada's first restriction on Chinese immigration was not a ban. It was a price — the Chinese head tax (人头税, réntóushuì), a fee collected at the gate from every Chinese person seeking entry, from 1885 to 1923.
The ladder climbed in three…
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…
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;…
Mid-Autumn Festival 2026: The Reunion Festival of the Separated
Of all the festivals on the Chinese calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节, Zhōngqiū Jié) is the one built around a single shape. The full moon (满月, mǎnyuè) is round. The mooncake (月饼, yuèbǐng) is round. The table a family gathers around is round — and in…
The Hu (胡) Surname: From the State of Hu to the Wuyi Diaspora
The State That Became a Name
The Hu surname (胡, Hú) was born in the year a state died. In 495 BC the armies of Chu marched on the small Gui-clan (归姓, Guī xìng) state of Hu (胡子国, Húzǐ Guó), near what…
A Fief That Became a Name
The Ye surname begins with a place that outlived its state. Twenty-five hundred years ago, on the floodplain of what is now Ye County, Henan (叶县, Yè Xiàn), lay the fief of Ye (叶邑, Yè Yì) — first recorded in the annals in 576 BCE. The small state it…
The Su (苏) Surname: From the Ancient State of Su to the Wuyi Diaspora
A State Gives Its Name (苏国)
The Su (苏, Sū) surname traces its origins to the ancient State of Su, a Zhou-era vassal state in what is today Wen County, Henan — and from that small principality a lineage that produced…
Getting Around Wuyi: Trains, Buses, and Hiring a Driver for Your Roots Trip
The Railway the Villagers Built, the Railroad That Brought Them Home
For 150 years, the story of Wuyi (五邑, Wǔyì) — the five counties of Kaiping, Taishan, Enping, Xinhui, and Heshan that form Guangdong's great qiaoxiang (侨乡, qiáoxiāng), the "overseas Chinese homeland"…