Posted by M. H. Yee (142.3.144.200) on July 18, 2004 at 16:30:16:
In Reply to: Chang Family from Canton, China to Fiji posted by Lee-Ann Ah Sam on July 09, 2004 at 09:16:44:
Do you pronounce Chang more like /jung/? And, do you perhaps mean Chung Shan for Chung Kuo? If so, then there are some possible inferences that may be drawn:
1.) Chang is most likely the family name and in its pinyin form, Zheng, meaning "A plain. A surname". I have seen it written as Cheng, Jung, Jang, Chang, and less commonly as Cheung. Furthermore the spelling for this surname often corresponds to a particular immigrant destination. Therefore, Chang is a common spelling among those of this surname in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA; and, Jung or Jang for those in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
2.) Again, if the place name is Chung Shan, then this is a county or district in Guangdong province. In pinyin it is written as Zhongshan and was formerly called "Heung Shan" or Xiangshan. Your Hoe Tow is probably a Cantonese transliteration for the pinyin Haotou meaning "the Moat at the Head" and is a place name in Zhongshan. Haotou is both a smaller town located mid way between Zhongshanshi (or Shiqi) and Zhangjiabian market to the east; as well as, a collective name for a number of affiliated smaller villages and hamlets. I draw these conclusion in part because in the Xiangshan Xian Chi or Xiangshan County Gazette [1919? in Chinese] there is a chapter on local clans of which there is a paragraph about a rather large Zheng lineage at Haotou in the subdistrict of Deneng Dou or "Duck Doo".