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,…
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…
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…
The Han (韩) Surname: From the Warring States to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Han (韩) surname descends from the royal house of a kingdom of the Warring States — the State of Han (韩国, Hánguó), founded when Han Wan (韩万, Hán Wàn), grandson of Duke Wu of Quwo, was enfeoffed at Hanyuan (韩原, Hányuán) in…
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…
Angel Island Chinese Immigration: The Wooden House and the Carved Poems of the Excluded (1910–1940)
The Wooden House on the Pacific Gate
Between January 21, 1910, and October 1940, a wooded island in San Francisco Bay served as the Pacific gate of the Chinese Exclusion Act (排華法案, Pái Huá Fǎ'àn). Angel Island Chinese immigration was…
The Tang (唐) Surname: From the Sage Emperor Yao to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Sage Emperor and the Multi-Origin Name
The Tang (唐, Táng) surname traces its origins to the sage emperor Yao and the ancient State of Tang — a name carried from the legendary dawn of Chinese history through the archaeology of the…
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…
Gao (高) Surname: From the State of Gao to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Thousand Years on One Page
One surname. One village. One book that claims a thousand years.
The register in question — the genealogy of the Gao (高, Gāo) family of Nafu Village (那伏村, Nàfú Cūn) in Shadui Township, Xinhui District (沙堆镇, 新会区),…