China in America: A study in the social life of the Chinese in the eastern cities of the United StatesCulin, Stewart
History
China in America: A study in the social life of the Chinese in the eastern cities of the United States
Culin, Stewart
Chinese -- United States -- Social life and customs
The ties of kindred, preserved with so much care in China, are recognized
here, and many of the immigrants claim relationship. People of the
same village naturally drift together, and as all the inhabitants of a
Chinese village frequently belong to the same clan and bear the same
name, it happens that many members of the same family are often found
associated here, the numbers of any particular family varying much,
however, in different localities. Some thirty or forty of these clans
only are represented among the Chinese in our Eastern cities. A Chinese
storekeeper in Philadelphia has furnished me with the following list
of the names and numbers of each clan among some four hundred and fifty
of his acquaintances in that city. It will be observed that the _Lí_
clan outnumbers any other. In New York city, the Chiús predominate,
numbering some five hundred souls.
區 _Au_, 4 or 5.
陳 _Ch'an_, 30.
周 _Chau_, 15.
張 _Chéung_, 20.
鄭 _Ching_, 2 or 3.
趙 _Chiu_, 10.
鍾 _Chung_, 30.
馮 _Fung_, 10.
何 _Ho_, 20.
林 _Lam_, 10.
李 _Lí_, 120.
羅 _Lo_, 2 or 3.
呂 _Lü_, 10.
馬 _Má_, 4 or 5.
麥 _Mak_, 15.
梅 _Múi_, 80.
吳 _'Ng_, 4 or 5.
伍 _'Ng_, 4 or 5.
譚 _T'ám_, 6.
鄧 _Tang_, 6.
胡 _Ú_, 4 or 5.
余 _Ü_, 10.
王 _Wong_, 10.
黃 _Wong_, 20.
顏 _Yan_, 1 or 2.
楊 _Yéung_, 4 or 5.
易 _Yik_, 1 or 2.
The members of a clan unite when necessary for mutual defense or to
redress a wrong done to one of their number; the ties and obligations of
the clan, however, are much stronger among the Sinning people than those
of the northern districts. Very slight disagreements between individuals
among them are frequently taken up by their respective families and made
the subjects of long and bitter quarrels--meetings are held, large sums
of money subscribed, and feuds perpetuated that may have been carried
on for ages at home.
The immigrants are nearly all agriculturists, with a small sprinkling
of artisans and shopkeepers, some of whom have served an apprenticeship
in Canton or Hong Kong after leaving their native villages. They are
nearly all single men, who left their homes at an early age before the
usual time among them for contracting marriages.[2] Some have wives and
children in China, and many of the more successful go home to marry and
then return again to America; but wives and children are never brought
with them, and there are few native women among them, except in San
Francisco and the cities of the western coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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