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Post by helen on Jul 13, 2012 15:52:03 GMT -5
This website can be used to hand write the characters - and then copy the characters to word. www.nciku.com/
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Post by lachinatown on Jul 14, 2012 15:21:28 GMT -5
Here is your Chinese seal or chop FayChee, in old Chinese seal font and reading right top down, left top down: Attachments:
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Post by FayChee on Jul 17, 2012 20:17:49 GMT -5
Hello Douglas, Helen, Lachinatown and all, My brother and I just got back in town after a week long trip for a family reunion on my mom's side. I see that there is very wonderful information for me and on making a chop. Thank you so much for your kindness. I love the Chinese seal and can't wait to show my brother! We are still unpacking. ....life is wonderful. Fay Chee Attachments:
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Post by douglaslam on Jul 18, 2012 6:53:16 GMT -5
Fay Chee, it is a great study of you and your brother. It is impossible not to see the Chinese in the both of you. Welcome back to the tribe.
Perhaps you don't have the foggiest idea ; your name cannot be written in simplified form, which I thoroughly disapprove of. A few years ago, on one of my trips back to the village, I decided to have the genealogy record sorted. I paid a fee to the unofficial keeper and entered my family's as well as my cousins' names( they are in Canada) on record for eternity. I was gobsmacked to see my name was written in simplified characters. I refused to accept until it was reverted to the traditional form.
The personal seals are still in use today in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. You can open a bank accountant using the seal instead of a signature. In the old days, money remitted to China was acknowledged by the seal. An artist always stamps his or her seal on the work. The seal cannot be replicated exactly. With modern laser technology, it might be a different story.
If you don't mind waiting, I might be able to have a seal made for you on my next trip to China. Douglas
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Post by FayChee on Jul 18, 2012 8:28:39 GMT -5
Douglas, that is so generous of you to offer to take time from your vacation to get a seal made. I will greatly appreciate it, especially since I have no idea where I would go to have it done here. Also, it would be extra special if my Chinese seal was made by a craftsmen from China.
Thank you again, Fay Chee
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Post by FayChee on Jul 25, 2012 19:56:14 GMT -5
Great News! In October I will meet one of my Chinese relatives and take him to my dad's grave! It will be my great nephew,in his twenties, recent college graduate. He and friends are going sightseeing in New York and asked if I would take him to pay his respects to great grandfather.
My question: I know I should use a small red envelope, but how much money should I put in it (max)? Also, should I give him red envelopes to give to his parents and sister or gifts to give them from me? I don't know when or if I will get to meet them.
Also, is there anything else that would be nice that I could do for him? I would like to take him to dinner in chinatown afterwards, but I don't want to put him in an embarrassing situation.
Thanks, Fay Chee
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Post by helen on Jul 26, 2012 1:18:13 GMT -5
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Post by douglaslam on Jul 26, 2012 3:14:02 GMT -5
Fay Chee, My, my, your are indeed a very senior member of the family, a matriarch no less.
There is no max amount you can give, any amount is proper. It is the goodwill that matters. Try not to give $10 the first time because ten may imply 十足, fulfillment, completion, no room for improvement. 20, 30, 60, 80, or 90 are ok, but not 40, 50, or 70. If you're handing out red packet to every junior member, do not go over $20, or $30 per person. You don't want to run up a big amount. Twenty in Cantonese rhymes with ease, easiness in tackling all tasks. Thirty rhymes with alive, liveliness, meeting no dead end scenario.
If you're going to give your great nephew a treat, tell him so from the outset. Just remind him subtly that he is a fresh battling young graduate, there is plenty of time for him to return the kindness. It may border on superstition, don't order four or seven dishes for dinner. However small the portion, even pickled vegie side dish, it is a dish.
Have a lot of fun. I wish I could join the party.
Douglas
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Post by FayChee on Jul 26, 2012 7:57:21 GMT -5
Hi Helen and Douglas, Thanks for your input....I am going to carry it with me on a notecard. Me....Matriarch! I love it! Gotta buy a new dress....red! Since I can't read Chinese, maybe I should let the great nephew order the food? ? All I know is shrimp fried rice and egg drop soup....oh yes, my favorite is lobster cantonese. I've seen Chinese families order lots of little dishes on a turning round center piece, but have no clue how they ordered such a feast except that they could speak and read the menu. Oh, I think I am going to fumble this restaurant thing..... If anyone has the time, can you provide me a list of what you typically order on special occasions like this, in English and Chinese? (But no chicken feet or or jelly fish) Also, do I give him the red envelope when I first meet him, during the meal, at the cemetery or when saying goodbye??? Thank you, FayChee
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Post by laohuaqiao on Jul 26, 2012 10:36:57 GMT -5
Fay Chee, Giving of red envelope is a symbolic gesture, the amount does not have to be much. I think for an adult $20 is sufficient. The moment to give is at some point when you thank him for visiting you. If you plan to meet him several times during his visit, the end of the first meeting would be a good time. If your grand nephew is brought up in a traditional Chinese family, he'll give the obligatory "no, no not necessary" response; you'll explain that luck has brought you together and this is the tradition that will continue to bring luck to both you and him.
If he has friends with him, do it discretely while his friends are not paying attention or not around. Otherwise, he might feel embarrassed and his friends feel being left out.
As to dishes to order, a steamed fish, a chicken (Cantonese-style fried chicken, garlic chicken or ginger/scallion chicken) and a vegetable (bok choy, spinach, etc.) are basic dishes. Yes, lobster is good, especially if your grand nephew has never had North Atlantic lobsters before.
Eventually becoming the matriarch of the family is one of the benefits of being many, many years younger than your siblings. ;D
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Post by Ah Gin on Jul 26, 2012 15:58:29 GMT -5
Fay Chee,
Your journey through the maze of Family Gene is heart warming, and I follow it with great interest and the occasional moist eyes when things happened in a myterious way. Members of this forum had been most generous not only to you but many others on their own journey in discovering our link to a culture which we are fortunate to inherite. My humble advice to you is that: you are what you are and who you are. Having got such great advice from Douglas et al, be confident and do your own thing, at your own pace. Speaking for myself, my Cantonese is not exactly at the "Queen's English" standard; my "Mandarin" would provoke a few laughters with experts; my Hoisanwa is even worse than my Cantonese. As to my understanding of "what is the right thing to do" -- I am still learing as well.
I recall once at Hoiping (Kaiping) after a long jouney from Kangaroo Land, I thought I will treat myself to "Yellow Eel Earthern Pot Rice". The burn rice at the bottom of the pot was too good to waste, so I asked the young waiter (who was obviously from another province) was slighly embarassed when I asked him for hot water / top soup to soak the pot, so that I can get the last bit of the tasty rice out of the pot -- a bit like jook. That is was a classy restaurant back in China did not worry me. I did not want to waste any rice, as I recall the bitter memory of one of my cousins, who during the Great Turmoil Days, had to pick grains from the road, used to dry the harvest. (But that's another story). And when I walked into a family wedding, back at the village, I managed to find red packets to give to the bride and groom when I was included in the Wedding Tea Ceremony -- an honour of an elder, which I find hard to believe as well (that I have become an elder within the family, (back in China that is).
Enjoy your reunion with your family. It's heart warming and I am sure you will take lots of picture for your family and folks after you.
Regards, Ah Gin
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Post by helen on Jul 27, 2012 1:10:23 GMT -5
This is our August Moon Dinner menu next month
1. Roast Meat Combination Entree (duck, cha siu, crispy pork, steam chicken, beef shin) 2. Egg white beef coriander soup 3. Spring onion & ginger Crayfish with E-fu noodle 4. Steam blue cod whole 5. Spicy & salt squid 6. Celery stirfry chicken meat 7. Steam tofu with prawn topping 8. Garlic stir fry choi sum 9. Combination fry rice Yang chow style 10. Fruit plate
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Post by douglaslam on Jul 27, 2012 7:25:17 GMT -5
Fay Chee, I concur with laohuaqiao's simpler menu. I think Helen's selections are a bit too large for a small party. Since it is a celebration of a happy first meeting I also think the deep fried chicken 當紅炸子雞 is preferred to ginger / scallion chicken. This is a Cantonese, Southern Chinese tradition to have deep fried chickens for a more formal, happy occasion.
When giving the red packet, you may do so with one or both hands, your great nephew would accept with both hands. He may present you with a gift, you,too, must accept with both hands.
I am a stickler for traditions and customs, fifty years in Australia only enforces in me that aspect of our culture. I felt quite alien at my children's ( and others) degree conferring ceremonies. There, the graduands would accept their degrees with just one hand. I found that very confronting. Douglas
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Post by FayChee on Jul 28, 2012 20:03:10 GMT -5
Ah Gin, Thank you for telling the story of the rice and of your cousin's hard times during the Great Turmoil days. It reminds me of myself and my siblings after my father died in '53. My mom had 5 little children to raise alone, and no income. I remember many hungry days that I thought I would die from the pain.
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Post by FayChee on Jul 28, 2012 20:15:14 GMT -5
Helen, That link to the information on the Red Envelope was great! I printed it out and will read it a few more times. I have so much to learn.......wish I had tried to learn about my culture when I was younger.
Fay Chee
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