| I agree with Akam42. It is confusing to the non-Chinese speaking people about our references to our relatives. Great Uncle, grand uncle, or distance great uncle will address that issue. Also, to most western culture, it is hard to tell which cousins they are referring to, in Chinese, we address the relationship in different titles. So, we know the relationship between the cousins, the in-laws, aunts and uncles and etc. Now, because of the one child policy of China, the meaning of the different relationship between generations are much more simplified than it used to be. I remember one of my high school classmate, who came from a very wealthy and large family, she called her uncle in Calgary the 24th Uncle from the father side. I asked how many wifes did her grandfather had..........he had 4 wifes, therefore, they had a huge extended family. They took up a few greyhound buses for a family trip. The family photo shoot is a major events, and the size of everyone's headshot is the size of a short grain rice. I think the extended father side of her family member total number are about 186 people in 3 generations. I can't bring myself to asked how many on her mother side because she did mentioned her mom came from a even larger family. |
The Name of Chinese People