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Post by kwongj on Jul 20, 2009 1:09:50 GMT -5
 Hello: I need some help translating the address above. I think it is: Guangdong, Taishan, Sanba, and Chong yun. The last part I can't figure out. it suppose to be the street name? Some of my friends said this is not useful ( the street name) when translated but I am curious about other opinions. Thank you. |
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Post by Henry on Jul 20, 2009 11:09:51 GMT -5
Hi Kwongj, Welcome to our Forum. From what I can see, your village is located in Sanba rural district and the name of your village is "Nam An". Please see the maps I have posted below for: Nam An village, Sanba area, and for southern Guangdong province. I may be wrong because I cannot read or write Chinese, but, one of the Chinese literate Forum members can correct me and then I will try to find the correct village for you. Henry ![]() mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Nam An.jpg[/img] ![]() mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Sanba area.jpg[/img] ![]() mysite.verizon.net/vzepzaui/Southern Guangdong 2003.jpg[/img] |
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Post by kwongj on Jul 21, 2009 2:17:47 GMT -5
Hello Henry:
Thank you for the maps. There are quite helpful to me. I printed the first two maps to show my parents. My parents can't read English or speak English very well so they cannot help me much with the English translation hence my request for help from others.
I try to do most of the research myself, but not knowing how to read Chinese, it was difficult. I found from my study that the same village can have several alternative spelling and pronunciation.
But back to your maps, they were surprise that there are maps like this. My mother recognize Nam An as the home of my grandfather (thank you). and Kaiping as the home of my grandmother. She said that it is about a 30 minutes walk between the two villages.
We are planning a family reunion and I needed this information to present to my cousins during this time so they can better appreciated their roots and to find their way back to their parents', grandfather’s and grandmother’s home town if they should ever decide to visit China. Myself, I’ve been to China about ½ dozen times now, but not back to our home village.
My parents have been back couple of times, but everything the timing just did not work out for us to meet up with them in their home town. My mother is talking about next year.
Again thank you for your help.
Sincerely James
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Post by Henry on Jul 21, 2009 5:59:07 GMT -5
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Post by geoff on Jul 21, 2009 16:31:40 GMT -5
Hello James,
Like you, I also can't read or speak chinese. A couple of years ago, Henry was kind enough to supply the above map which allowed me visualise how far our ancestral villages are from Guangzhou. A family friend & my cousin have visited our villages but it's probably not the same as actually seeing it for one self.
You say you've visited China 6 times. Do you have some stories about those visits?
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Post by jmchan888 on Jul 23, 2009 19:36:27 GMT -5
Hi James,
I am like you, new to the forum. I find people like Philip Tan, Henry Tom are excellent supporter who go out of their way to help. I have three years of Chinese before coming to Canada. Somehow, I managed to hang on to what I learned in Chinese characters plus speaking Hoisanwa (Toyshan village dialect) and Cantonese. With the help of my mother-in-law, I can decipher your Chinese characters as follow:
With your Chinese characters, you got most of the beginning Chinese characters translated:
V–|(Ê¡) Guangdong (province), ̨ɽÊÐ Taishan city, Sanba Èý°Ëàl (Interesting side note : Èý°Ëwhich literally translated as 3 and 8 in Chinese. Many of the villages have names such as these because that was when they would go to market as market days; another village like say ËľÅ, their market days would be 4 and 9), ³åë…„¢Õæ translated as `Chung Won Liu Gin` which actually refers to an specific area (eg. North Los Angeles and South Los Angeles), ¶´ÄÏ°²´å translated as `Dung Nan An Cun` which is the name of the village.
I hope that helps, James. When you go back to the village from Taishan city and you have the information in Chinese and the help of Henry`s nephew, someone you trust, you should be able to find your village easily.
A fellow forum member,
John Chan
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Post by kwongj on Jul 28, 2009 2:06:06 GMT -5
Hi Geoff: I'm sorry I could not reply back sooner. I was quite busy planning and preparing things for our family Reunion this last weekend. I was all gung-ho about this. I created a family tree chart that spanned about 6 feet long by 2 feet wide and spent several days creating a PowerPoint presentation about Toishan and where our grandparents' village is located, plus getting food, tables, chairs, etc. I didn't do everything by myself of course, about a dozen of us worked on this project. We had about 76 people showing up and it was quite a fun event. Before the reunion, the excitement cause some of the younger relatives along with some of the first generation ABCs to be curious about Toishan. Couple of them was even wondering what a "Han" Chinese was because of the recent events with the Uyghur. But I am making my story too long. The maps that Henry provided hopefully will be helpful to some of the curious relatives about their ancestor home. I took some pictures from relatives' trip to Toishan along with Henry's map and show them in the Powerpoint. Of my trips to China, I'm not sure what to say. I found them all very memorable. Things that will stick in my memory are: the number of people riding bicycles going to work in some of the cities and all the bike racks. The number of cars on the road in China. The number of new constructions. The variety of different food and ethnic groups as I travel from one part of China to another. Even some of the odd things like squat toilets, c0ckroaches, people spitting especially the women, and babies with opened seat pants will bring a smile to my face. . One time, I went to my friend's apartment in Shenzhen. When we got to her apartment complex, the parking lot was literally covered by a sea of c0ckroaches. This was about 1 PM in the afternoon. I guess the nearby remodeling must have disturbed their nest because the c0ckroaches were all running along the parking lot under the hot sun. As I pull my suitcase and walk along the pavement, I was trying my best not to crush them. I'm shaking my head now thinking about it. :-)  When I first went to China, I knew no Mandarin. Now after studying for about 2 years, I can speak elementary Mandarin. But enough of my story. Thank for your greeting. sincerely James |
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Post by kwongj on Jul 28, 2009 16:29:37 GMT -5
Hi James, I am like you, new to the forum. I find people like Philip Tan, Henry Tom are excellent supporter who go out of their way to help. I have three years of Chinese before coming to Canada. Somehow, I managed to hang on to what I learned in Chinese characters plus speaking Hoisanwa (Toyshan village dialect) and Cantonese. With the help of my mother-in-law, I can decipher your Chinese characters as follow: With your Chinese characters, you got most of the beginning Chinese characters translated: V–|(Ê¡) Guangdong (province), ̨ɽÊÐ Taishan city, Sanba Èý°Ëàl (Interesting side note : Èý°Ëwhich literally translated as 3 and 8 in Chinese. Many of the villages have names such as these because that was when they would go to market as market days; another village like say ËľÅ, their market days would be 4 and 9), ³åë…„¢Õæ translated as `Chung Won Liu Gin` which actually refers to an specific area (eg. North Los Angeles and South Los Angeles), ¶´ÄÏ°²´å translated as `Dung Nan An Cun` which is the name of the village. I hope that helps, James. When you go back to the village from Taishan city and you have the information in Chinese and the help of Henry`s nephew, someone you trust, you should be able to find your village easily. A fellow forum member, John Chan Hi John: Thank you for the additional translation of the address. I will update my file to include your translation. I was wondering why the “SanBa” sounded like 3 and 8 in Mandarin. Now it is starting to make more sense. I love learning these little histories behind a name or word. My mother was saying that some of the Chinese characters corresponded to the address (the specific area in your case). That was the part I could not translate for the life of me. Thank you for taking the time to talk with your mother-in-law on deciphering it. I should have check back with this forum before I created my PowerPoint presentation. I would have included this information. My sister is planning on creating a genealogy book. I can include your translation into the section that deals with my grandparents. Again Thank You for your Help James |
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