Posted by Johnben Loy on May 25, 2003 at 18:07:01:
In Reply to: Re: Surname No.69 thunder posted by richard lee on December 01, 1998 at 06:09:26:
: in reply to Willem DW Louis,i have the transcript of the origin and history of the surname,Lei(thunder).but it is in mandarin.infact anybody interested in the transcript of the surname can contact me at my e-mail address.
Concerning the surname "THUNDER" (Lei, Louie, Looi, or "Loy" in my case), I recently discovered from a cousin in China that any Chinese with the last name THUNDER (I will use "Lei" in Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin) comes from the minority tribe or nation called SHE.
A search on a good search engine for minority nations in China will lead you to more information. Look out for people who are primarily agriculturally based, who like to sing when they work/talk, and whose women wear black with red outlines and have their hair tied up like the tail of a phoenix. The SHE's have 5 different last names attributed to them, and there is an interesting legend that connects those names. The Lei's (unfortunately) have the legend of being associated with dog-headed people! :)
Good luck. Feel free to contact me with any questions (or look me up on the University of Minnesota website if my email no longer works).
Johnben Loy
Okay... let me help out a little bit more: Do a search on www.google.com on the words "she minority," and you'll quite a few good links on it.
Johnben Loy