102 replies to this topic

[Yongwoni GOD]

I remember sometime ago someone told me that Hong Kongers tends to look at how you dress before they attend to you. It is something clothing becomes your calling card. The visits that I have made to Hong Kong had kind of confirm it. Whenever, I walked into a shopping mall, the sales girls would either avoid me or come to me, depending on what I was wearing.

To some extent, yes, but only because it shows how much respect you give to the opposite party rather than socio-economic discrimination. In fact I find that this sort of discrimination is more evident in China.

[Da Shuai]

Hi all,

Up till today I do not know when or what cause the spelling change for Cantonese migrants to Singapore/Malaysia...as in my case...Leung to Leong? Anyone with an answer?

Please advice

Thank you

Regards

Da Shuai

[Minty]

Yes, apparently in HK, Taiwan, Japan... you are judged on your economic status.

[sg_han]

Hi all,

Up till today I do not know when or what cause the spelling change for Cantonese migrants to Singapore/Malaysia...as in my case...Leung to Leong? Anyone with an answer?

Please advice

Thank you

Regards

Da Shuai

i dun think there are any particular reasons sometimes they are registered wrongly or the nurse heard wrongly and it wa snever change so it remains as it is...

[Minty]

In the past people's English standard is far worse than now so when they registered their Chinese surnames in Roman letters all sorts of spellings came out. My mother and her brother have their surname registered in a different spelling than the rest of their family. Mum and my uncle went out of Taiwan earlier than the rest, and then their surname was spelt differently by the TW authority than the ones who came out later. Liou vs Liu.

In M'sia there are people with the surnames of Li or Lee. For westerners they think they are different surnames but for us Chinese we know it's the same surname just being spelt differently. Even like Lam 'Cantonese) or Lin (Mandarin) or Lim. (Mandarin)..Wong (Fuchewnese), Huang (Mandarin) or Hwang( Mandarin)... different Chinese dialects yield different spellings. Even if it is just in Mandarin version the spelling can come in more than one version. E.G. Tsai, Chai.., and so on...

Edited by Minty, 24 July 2006 - 03:17 PM.

[sg_han]

In the past people's English standard is far worse than now so when they registered their Chinese surnames in Roman letters all sorts of spellings came out. My mother and her brother have their surname registered in a different spelling than the rest of their family. Mum and my uncle went out of Taiwan earlier than the rest, and then their surname was spelt differently by the TW authority than the ones who came out later. Liou vs Liu.

In M'sia there are people with the surnames of Li or Lee. For westerners they think they are different surnames but for us Chinese we know it's the same surname just being spelt differently. Even like Lam 'Cantonese) or Lin (Mandarin) or Lim. (Mandarin)..Wong (Fuchewnese), Huang (Mandarin) or Hwang( Mandarin)... different Chinese dialects yield different spellings. Even if it is just in Mandarin version the spelling can come in more than one version. E.G. Tsai, Chai.., and so on...

err minty you got it all wrong. lim is hokkien/teochew wong can also be for cantonese....

[Minty]

err minty you got it all wrong. lim is hokkien/teochew wong can also be for cantonese....

I do know people who are basing their Chinese names on Mandarin pronunciation with the surname of 林 'Lin'spelt Lim. Just like the surname 严 'Yen' some had it spelt Yem.

Also I am well aware that the 'Huang' 黄 surname is also Wong for Cantonese as well as for fuchewnese. I am half fuchewnese, I have had some friends with Wong surnames mistaken to be Cantonese but they are not and they can't speak Cantonese. I just didn't mention all the Chinese dialects in roman letters of the same surnames in my examples.

Edited by Minty, 25 July 2006 - 05:12 PM.

[sg_han]

I do know people who are basing their Chinese names on Mandarin pronunciation with the surname of 林 'Lin'spelt Lim. Just like the surname 严 'Yen' some had it spelt Yem.

however people that you mention here are almost unheard of...singaporean chinese normally base their surname according to their dialect my surname is toh which is the hokkien for ZHUO. my mum's surname is TAN hokkien pronounciation for CHEN

[Centaur]

however people that you mention here are almost unheard of...singaporean chinese normally base their surname according to their dialect my surname is toh which is the hokkien for ZHUO. my mum's surname is TAN hokkien pronounciation for CHEN

Yeah, and for one period of time, we almost lost all our dialect surnames because the authorities decided to use Pinyin. Good thing, people here protested and we retained our dialect surnames, but the given name are in Pinyin.

[sg_han]

Yeah, and for one period of time, we almost lost all our dialect surnames because the authorities decided to use Pinyin. Good thing, people here protested and we retained our dialect surnames, but the given name are in Pinyin.

erm ya but still i see many putting their given names in dialect

for eg(hokkien ones)

cheng hock
cheng tsua
cheng san
cheng sim

my cousins have name of BOON PIN my friends have names of wee keat, wee kang,

[Minty]

however people that you mention here are almost unheard of...singaporean chinese normally base their surname according to their dialect my surname is toh which is the hokkien for ZHUO. my mum's surname is TAN hokkien pronounciation for CHEN

Well it's true the surname Yen is rare, by the way the Yen /Yem are Mandarin pronunciations.

The Wong surname on the other hand is large and not just for Cantonese. I guess Fuchewnese population in SG must be tiny compare to East Malaysia.

Yes most Sino Malaysians also based their surnames on dialects, but we have some who intermarries with Taiwanese and choose to live in Malaysia then the surname is according to Mandarin pronunciations, if the guy is Taiwanese that is. However, most intermarriages between Taiwanese and Sino Malaysian, it is the Men that are Sino Malaysians, that's very true.

I think old generations have both their surnames and their names in dialects, but the younger ones have only their surnames in dialect pronunciation while their Chinese given names in Mandarin pronunciations. And it is not always spelt according to China's PinYin spelling. My Chinese given name in Mandarin isn't.

Another common one is Lau, the fuchewnese surname of 刘 is also Lau. I know Cantonese population is big in overseas Chinese department but they are not the only one that is Chinese with those pronunciations.

My mum's surname is also 刘, but as she is Taiwanese, at an earlier time when she left Taiwan to marry my dad in East Malaysia the translation of 刘 from Taiwan was Liou. Besides her brother who also got out of Taiwan earlier because he went to U.S. to studyalso been given the spelling of Liou, the rest of her family who got out of Taiwan later on were given the spelling Liu. It is only when you leave Taiwan to go to a foreign country where Roman letters are required they give you a translation. In Taiwan everything is written in Hanzi.

Edited by Minty, 26 July 2006 - 04:09 PM.

[fsgien]

What could have been a extremely important topic for
the Chinese Diaspora all over the world
has ended up with so much irrelevant Tribal rhetorics
and off the topic discussions;

if members of the CHF, young and old alike
in terms of their participation on CHF
consist of reactionary, impetuous and instant
responses to our own personal viewpoints;
with all its prejudices, withour regard
to the topic or what other members are
trying to say or saying;
then CHF will have a lot of superflous contributions
tantamount to verbiage.

i have visited Hong Kong on many occasions
and meet up with many Huayi from Hong Kong
across the continents
i was about to add my thoughts about
the role of Hong Kong Huayi/Huaqiao
towards the concept of Huaren and
the "face" of Chinese / Overseas Chinese etc
but am somewhat hesitant
as i believe in light of previous threads
it will be considered irrelevant
by many superior members more knowledgable than me.

as said in some of my previous postings
" a handful of sand "
so where is the unity of being Chinese
is "Chung Hua" a myth?

and finally, what was the role of Putonghua
as introduced by the PRC?
it was not any dialect or minority language or dialect,
it simplified the written language,
used a different phonetic system,
limited the number of words to be used
allowed evolution of the 'Official language'
to ensure unity and progress for a country
ravaged by wars, exploitation, in fighting and more

[Ruthless4Life]

What "Mainlanders see as HKers being cocky" is no different from peasants from the countryside seeing how urban Shanghaiese and Beijingers are different from they are.