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intro-toishan.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<title>Introduction: Toishan Index of Clan Names By Villages</title>
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<a href="https://www.friendsofroots.org/">Friends of Roots</a>
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VillageDB
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<h1>INTRODUCTION</h1>
<h2>Purpose</h2>
<p>Anyone making use of this index will undoubtedly
already be aware that a large majority of the Chinese in
continental United States are themselves from Toishan
District in Kwangtung Province or are the descendants of
persons who migrated to the United States from that
District. Per se, Toishan District figures in a majority of
Chinese fraud cases involving illegal immigration into the
United States. It therefore follows that any and all
information concerning Toishan District will be most useful
in investigating suspected fraud and in determining the
veracity of a large number of visa, passport, and federal
benefit applications. It is the purpose of this index to add to
this fund of knowledge about Toishan District by correlating
villages in the district with the clan name of their inhabitants.
Villages in Toishan District are small, but numerous
— it has been estimated that they number over 4,000 in all
— and fortuitously, a large number of these villages are
composed wholly of families from the same clan. Thus,
all inhabitants born in such a village have the same
surname and, of course, would be clansmen if not actually
blood relatives.</p>
<p>The information contained in this index has proved to
be very useful in processing visa, passport, and federal
benefit cases at this Consulate General. Birthplaces of all
applicants, and where applicable, of Stateside petitioners
as well, are checked against the index to see if the
applicants and/or petitioners are using their proper names.
In almost all cases where discrepancies were noted, subsequent
investigations have verified the existence of fraud.
This has also been true in those cases where the subjects
or petitioners have claimed birth in one village and then
claim to have moved to another village while still quite
young. The index has come to be the largest single factor
in determining fraud at this post.</p>
<h2>How to Use the Index</h2>
<p>Toishan District, prior to 1949, was divided by the
Nationalist Government of China into ten areas. Each
area in turn was divided into smaller jurisdictional
groupings of villages (or lays) termed heungs or bos.
Some of the smaller heungs have been integrated to form
larger heungs, usually referred to as major heungs to
differentiate them from their constituent minor heungs.
For purposes of easier identification, this index and our
files have been assembled according to these groupings.
There is no village information available to this office
concerning the Fifth Area, and consequently no heungs
are listed for it in this subdivision of the Index. To the
best of bur knowledge the Fifth Area consists of only two
small islands located off the coast of Toishan District —
Sheung Chuen and Ha Chuen — and consists of only a
few heungs. The Fifth Area, however, has contributed
little in the way of immigrants to the United States.</p>
<p>Because of the number of villages in Toishan District
and because village names have been duplicated in many
heungs it has not been possible to list all of the villages
alphabetically at this time. Therefore, to, effectively use
the index it is necessary to know the Subject’s heung as
well as his village. The heungs and bos are listed
alphabetically immediately following this explanation,
and by locating a heung in this listing you can determine
on which page of the index it is to be found. Should the
heung be a minor heung, which is now a part of a larger
heung, the name of the major heung will be found in
parentheses after the name of the minor heung in the
listing. If the heung or bo name cannot be found in the
alphabetical listing, and the Chinese characters are known,
the STC (Standard Telegraphic Code) index of heungs
and bos can be consulted. This listing will be found
immediately following that of the alphabetical listing.
Both listings are appropriately tabbed.</p>
<p>Once the heung or bo has been located in the index,
the finding of the appropriate village is simple. All villages
in a heung or bo are listed in three ways — by romanized
version of the name, by STC numbers and in the Chinese
characters. With each village is listed the clan name of
the families occupying the village, also in romanized
version, STC numbers and Chinese characters. In those
cases where our information indicates that more than one
clan name is found in a village, all known clan names are
listed. Villages in a heung or bo are listed in all frequently-used
version of the name, since some villages have changed
names over the years or have acquired different aliases at
various times during their development.</p>
<p>All heungs and bos found in the index are keyed to
maps of Toishan District which will be found in the tabbed
section immediately following the STC Listing of Heungs
and Bos. These maps themselves are keyed to the grid
coordinates of the U.S. Army Map Service Series covering
Kwangtung Province.</p>
<p>In addition to map location, with each heung is also
listed the related major or minor heungs and the name of
the market in or nearest the heung.</p>
<h2>Standardized Romanization of the Toishan Dialect</h2>
<p>One of the most formidable problems which developed
in compiling this index was determining what might
constitute an acceptable standardized form of romanization
for the Toishan Dialect. Toishanese itself varies in Toishan
District from locality to locality and there is little, if any,
actual agreement to be found as to which local form of the
dialect might be considered as standard for the district. It
therefore became necessary to establish an arbitrary
standardized romanization of Toishanese clan and village
names. It was decided that the romanized form of each
Chinese character used most frequently in our files would
be the form used in this index. Character 5591 for example,
which can be variously romanized as CHOI, CHOY, TOY,
TOI, TSOI, has been standardized as CHOI.</p>
<h2>Amendments</h2>
<p>Although the contents of the index are the synthesis
of thousands of interviews and the compilation of data
from many thousands of visa, passport, and federal benefit
applications, it is still far from being definitive. It is the
considered opinion of persons who have been working with
the index for many years that it does include about 95%
of all the villages in Toishan District, but as new applica-
tions are reviewed and more investigations conducted
locally, the new data obtained should add to its completeness
and to its correctness. The index will be reviewed
from time to time and as changes are found necessary,
amendment notices will be issued to all holders of the
index. It is also hoped that in the future, when time and
workload permit, an alphabetical listing of all village
names and a listing of Toishanese clan marriage-name
sequences will be compiled, both of which should prove
quite useful in working with the index. Also in the
future, this office hopes to compile indices, similar to this
one, for Hoiping, Chungshan and Sunwui Districts, thereby
covering most of the fraud area. Any suggestions, comments,
and especially any information which might be
included in this index, are respectfully requested. All such
correspondence should be addressed to the Chief, Consular
Section, American Consulate General, Hong Kong, Attention:
Control Officer, and should be forwarded through
official channels.</p>
<h2>Acknowledgement</h2>
<p>Grateful acknowledgement is made to the many
investigators and clerks, both American and local, who
have contributed many, many hours of time and patience
in the compilation of this work. This office is also deeply
indebted to the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
which has borne the major share in the cost of the publication
of this index, and to the General Services Officer at
this post who has somehow found the rest of the money
necessary to make this publication possible.</p>
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