Historical Landmarks History and Culture

Yamen 1279: The Battle That Ended the Song Dynasty

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…

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BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Yuan (袁) Surname: From the State of Chen to the Wuyi Diaspora

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…

2 days ago0Comments

BySteven

Interior of a Taishan ancestral hall with spirit tablets, incense, and ceremonial offerings

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Pan (潘) Surname: From the State of Pan to the Wuyi Diaspora

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;…

3 days ago0Comments

BySteven

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Zeng (曾) Surname: From Confucian Lineage to the Wuyi Diaspora

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…

August 7, 20260Comments

BySteven

Facade of the Wanggang Li ancestral hall in Baiyun, Guangzhou — a protected heritage building among the Li clan's standing ancestral monuments

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Li (黎) Surname: From the Ancient State of Li to the Wuyi Diaspora

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,…

August 6, 20260Comments

BySteven

A getai stage performance in Singapore during the Hungry Ghost Festival, sound and light honoring the dead as guests.

diaspora festivals

Zhongyuan Festival: How the Wuyi Diaspora Honors the Dead

Zhongyuan Festival: How the Wuyi Diaspora Honors the Dead The Month of the Dead — and the People Who Never Stopped Feeding Them In the Chinese calendar, the seventh lunar month belongs to the dead. This year the gates of the underworld open on August 13 and close on September 10 — twenty-nine days in…

August 6, 20260Comments

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

Village houses and fields of a Taishan qiaoxiang village, representative of the Wuyi emigrant countryside

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Tan (谭) Surname: From an Ancient State of Shandong to the Wuyi Diaspora

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…

August 3, 20260Comments

BySteven

Yunhuan Lou and Qiuanjulu Mansion in Zili Diaolou Village, Tangkou Township, Kaiping — the destination at the end of the last-mile road.

Chinese Surnames Surname Archive

The Cai (蔡) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty State to the Wuyi Diaspora

In 1046 BCE, King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty and began distributing territory to his brothers and allies. His fifth brother, Ji Du (姬度), received a fief in what is now Shangcai County (上蔡县), Henan Province. The state was called Cai (蔡国). For the next 600 years, through 25 rulers, the State of…

July 31, 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

What Is Qiaopi? A Beginner&#8...

Haiyan Overseas Chinese Farm:...

The Meijia Courtyard of Duanf...

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Tag: Wuyi

What Is Qiaopi? A Beginner&#8...

Haiyan Overseas Chinese Farm:...

The Meijia Courtyard of Duanf...

The Women Who Left: Chinese F...

Hong Kong’s Hidden Depa...

Yamen 1279: The Battle That Ended the Song Dynasty

The Yuan (袁) Surname: From the State of Chen to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Pan (潘) Surname: From the State of Pan to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Zeng (曾) Surname: From Confucian Lineage to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Li (黎) Surname: From the Ancient State of Li to the Wuyi Diaspora

Zhongyuan Festival: How the Wuyi Diaspora Honors the Dead

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

The Tan (谭) Surname: From an Ancient State of Shandong to the Wuyi Diaspora

The Cai (蔡) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty State to the Wuyi Diaspora

Enping: The Wuyi Corner Few Diaspora Know

What Is Qiaopi? A Beginner&#8...

Haiyan Overseas Chinese Farm:...

The Meijia Courtyard of Duanf...

The Women Who Left: Chinese F...

Hong Kong’s Hidden Depa...

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