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Post by NH on Mar 27, 2006 18:20:52 GMT -5
I'm very new to this ancestral stuff. I need people to be very clear about how I find my village because I'm still sort of confused. My last name is Huang, but I don't know what clan I am from. I don't understand clans either. What does it mean when someone says they are part of a ______ Huang clan? The blank space in front of Huang is usually where I see some other name put in and I don't know what it means. What kind of information can I use to find my ancestral village?
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Post by helen on Mar 28, 2006 4:38:40 GMT -5
Hullo NH - What dialect did your family speak? Cantonese, mandarin, Hakka? That's a clue. Any idea of the chinese character the Huangs are? eg I am from the Chan clan - but they came from different villages around the south of China, Kwangchow area. The way you spell you Huang, sounds like a version of Wong - maybe King (Big tummy Wong) or yellow Wong
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Post by Raymond on Mar 28, 2006 5:14:54 GMT -5
NH: If your Huang family clan name is written üS in Chinese, then you are in luck because there are much information on that surname on the internet which means "yellow". The Cantonese version of the same surname is anglicized as "Wong". For starters, check out the host of information available on the Huang surname at the following link: www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3919/s096.html As you may know, the Huang/Wong surname is huge, and navigating your way to your particular ancestral village can present quite a challenge. Good luck, Raymond |
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Post by MH Yee on Mar 28, 2006 14:29:28 GMT -5
You pose a complicated question when you ask what the "blank" stands for before "Huang clan." It is certainly an identification marker and rather relative to the situation and circumstances. Because Huang is a large surname (at least in Guangdong province), the "blank" helps to distinguish one group of Huangs from another. Sometimes it stands for the name of an ancestor, or for a a tang [hall] designation but it usually refers to a particular place-name. Let's say that you meet a stranger who is Chinese and you go about asking "What is your surname?" You find out that you are both Huangs. Since you are both Huangs, there is the belief, at least among the Cantonese, that if one shares the same surname, one must also share a common paternal ancestor and so must belong to the same general kinship group or "clan"---hence, "Huang clan."
Then the question will arise, "Where do you come from?" You find out that you are both from the same province. This continues down the adminstrative levels {i.e. prefecture(fu or zhou), county (xian), market town (zhen), village cluster (xiang or pao), village (cun or li)}. In theory and at any time in the exchange of information, the "blank" will stance for a particular place-name (at one or more administrative levels). In practice, the information stops when, for whatever reason, some form of consensus has been reached.
However, in the case of the literature, the "blank" before "Huang clan" is more telling. It is a specific marker that groups people according to specific kinship ties through the father's line to that of a certain location (place). As such, it implies some real form of collectivity. Often the "blank" will stand for a market town or village cluster to which that particular surname group dominates or has some fame attached to that location.
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