Please help with some questions about my Chinese origin

[Toeng-tsoi]

Hello all,

First I want to say already Happy new year to everyone!

I'm partly Chinese, but I don't know much about my origins since my Grandfather never talked about it with his children (my mother, uncles, aunties).. and he passed away when I was still very young. He was very oldfashioned and wouldn't teach any of us Chinese because we weren't full blood..

According to my mother he spoke Hakka..

First I have a few questions from my mother which she would like to know.

When my grandfather passed away my mother got in contact with a cousin from his side I think, who wrote down a few things for her in chinese and explained how to get to his village from out Hong Kong.

I've copied what he wrote down and typed what my mother remembered how it sounded, so she is not sure at all about those pronounciations.

Here is a link to my grandfathers name: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/GrandfathersName.JPG

And a link to some places the cousin wrote down: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/Places.JPG

A small map she got with it lol: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/map.JPG (the place with circle Kwun tong is where he was from I think)

She/we would basicly like to know the correct pronounciation of those characters.. uhmm in Hakka and Mandarin maybe? Hakka just because he spoke Hakka and Mandarin since Im learning that . But whatever is easier will already make us happy. And for the places maybe if someone know what they exactly are? Because my mother got kind of confused which was the city, village, province etc. hehe.. The area he is from, does it mean he would be Cantonese?

The last question is from myself.

When I was born I was given a Chinese name by my grandfather: Toeng Tsoi

He wrote the characters down: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/toengtsoi.JPG

I would like to know what it means, Ive always been told it meant something like that I was born in winter? and would have much wealth or something? could that be right?

And for the sake of me learning Mandarin I'm ofcourse also quite curious for the Mandarin pronounciation of my name.

Oh one last request, maybe could you give me the typed chinese characters of my name? So I can type/print some stuff out. I was going to search for it in a dictionary, but since it's not mandarin pron. I had no idea how to, and I also don't know much about typing chinese characters yet hehe. If it's not too much trouble could you please do the same for my grandfathers name and the places?

Pfew, that's quite some text lol, I know I'm asking very much, but my mother and I would be so grateful if someone could help us out a bit with those things

Thanks very much in advance from us both!

Greetings,

Lorenzo / Toeng tsoi

[Peng]

I only know Mandarin so I can give you the Romanization for those characters.

Grandfather's name:

曾 (Ceng2) 瑞 (Rui4) 祥 (Xiang2)

Place:

廣東 (Guangdong) - Province

東莞 (Dongguan) - Prefecture-level city (地級市)

塘瀝 (Tangli)

The "li" character your cousin wrote can't be found in my dictionary or online dictionaries...??? I assume 塘瀝 is correct since it shows up in google search...

土宜 (Duyi)

小布村人 (Xiaobu Cunren)

Your name:

東 (Dong1) East

財 (Cai2) Wealth

[Toeng-tsoi]

Thanks Peng!

That's great

Just showed it to my mother and she says thanks too

She was excited lol, she's now also searching the characters for her Chinese name and my little brothers Chinese name that my grandfather wrote haha.

If she finds them and I post them could you please do this for those names too?

Thanks again! Really appreciated

Edit:

Got them

My mother's name - Njoek Tsoe: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/njoek-tsoe.JPG

And my brothers name - Cheuw Foek: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/cheuw-foek.JPG (or a bit clearer: http://84.31.152.91/Lor/cheuwfoek2.JPG )

I think my mothers name was something with Lotus flower and Jade?

And my lil bro's with Summer and luck?

Thanks in advance

[wai ming]

Your mother's name: 曾玉珠 Zeng1 Yu4 Zhu1

玉 = jade

珠 = pearl

Your brother's name: 秋福 Qiu1 Fu2

秋 = autumn

福 = luck

Just to correct Peng slightly, your surname should be pronounced zeng1 in Mandarin. (The same character can also be pronounced ceng2, but that pronunciation isn't used for the surname.)

As for the Hakka pronunciations, you can try posting here in the "other dialects" part of the Cantonese forums. I know one of the posters there, Dylan Sung, is very knowledgeable about Hakka.

[Yang Rui]

Another slight correction i think.

In Mandarin, 土宜 should be pronounced Tu3yi2. Although perhaps Peng's version (Duyi) is closer to the local Cantonese/Hakka pronunciation, or is the accepted way of writing that place name. Not sure. But in Mandarin, it should be Tuyi.

This is quite interesting. I wonder if Xiaobu village still exists. If it does, i bet it's changed a lot in the last few years with all the industry sprawling out from Dongguan.

[Toeng-tsoi]

Thanks guys!

As for the Hakka pronunciations, you can try posting here in the "other dialects" part of the Cantonese forums. I know one of the posters there, Dylan Sung, is very knowledgeable about Hakka.

Thanks for the link, I'll try that.

This is quite interesting. I wonder if Xiaobu village still exists. If it does, i bet it's changed a lot in the last few years with all the industry sprawling out from Dongguan.

Haha, yea, that's what we are wondering too..

My mother's "wish/dream" is to visit my grandfather's birthplace once, but yea..

She has so little information about it, and her cousin also couldn't really explain well to her, because they couldn't understand eachother.

And as far as I know we don't have any contact at all anymore with whatever family overthere we would still have

Oh something else we are wondering now, which we find a bit strange.

I'm born in December/winter and my little brother in July/summer.

One thing that my mother does remember for sure is that my grandfather explained to her that the way he named us was one character for the season we we're born in and the other something else.

So for me winter and wealth and for my lil bro summer and luck.

But according to the translations you gave it's

East and wealth for me and

Autumn and luck for my bro.

Is there some way to explain that difference? Maybe a cultural difference?

Or is it just that my grandfather made a mistake, maybe due to his age..

Or that my mother doesn't remember correct afterall lol.

Lorenzo

[imron]

East has the same pronunciation as winter, so I imagine the name contains this double-meaning. Many Chinese names are like this.

[Toeng-tsoi]

Hmm interesting, wasn't aware of that, thanks!

That explains it then, still a bit weird with my brother's name then.

Or maybe the pronounciation is the same Hakka but not Mandarin?

[imron]

Ooops, I meant the pronunciation is the same in Mandarin, I've no idea if it's the same in Hakka. I imagine there's something similar with your brother's name too.

What's more interesting though, is that usually in Chinese names, siblings of the same gender (I assume you're a guy) would have the same first character for their given names, but that doesn't seem to be the case with you and your brother.

[Toeng-tsoi]

Haha ok

Hope someone can help me with the Hakka pronounciation soon, really curious hehe..

Hmm that's interesting too indeed haha. And yea, I'm a guy hehe

Never heard about that, but then again I still don't know much about Chinese customs... wel not yet that is, studying hard

Anyways, thanks for the info so glad I found this forum, great source to learn about China.