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Chinese relatives - by Wong Yee Lee

It may be interesting to know that, unlike western system, in China, we have different appellation for different relatives in a family. This is obviously good practice in order to tell who we are referring to in a conversation though some people may think otherwise!

Father's side		Mother's side
Father's father	zufù	Mother's father	wài zufù
Father's mother	zumu	Mother's mother	wài zumu
Father's elder brother	bófù	Mother's elder brother	jiùfù
Father's younger brother	xu xu(uncle)	Mother's younger brother	same as above
Father's elder brother's wife	bómu	Mother's elder brother's wife	jiùmu
Father's younger brother's wife	shunshen	Mother's younger brother's wife	same as above
Father's elder and younger sister	gugu	Mother's elder and younger sister	yímu
Father's sister's husband	gufù	Mother's sister's husband	yífù
Father's brother's son	tángge(elder); tángdì(younger)	Mother's brother's son	biaoge(elder); biadì (younger)

I am sure this table can be endless knowing that one can have as big a family as possible. However, simply from the above, one can imagine how complicated it works when calling someone in your family in China. That is why it is not surprising that very often one doesn't know how to call someone when they meet in a Chinese New Year family gathering. What you need to know is that you always see this person every time you meet with your family and you can eat together at the same table.

Very often these days as well that sometimes my mother refers to someone about something in the family and she expects me to know who she is talking about. Well, the case is that I can hardly recall what this person looks like...

In China, with the One-Child policy started over 2 decades ago, I think this system may not be as commonly used as before.

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