Comments on: Why Hakkas Excel in Political and Military Leaderships?

By: Keyla

Keyla — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:32:20 +0000

I could watch Schindler\’s List and still be happy after reandig this.

By: LamPinFoo

LamPinFoo — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:22:24 +0000

Thanks for your interesting comments. I am fascinated by your illustrious family history.

If your ancestral home is Jiqinglou in Yongding, Fujian, My wife and I had visited it some five years ago. We were most impressed with its grand 600-year old structure, still in very good condition, its history and its ingenious architecture. Have a good roots-finding trip there.

By: Lucy Yeh Young

Lucy Yeh Young — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:58:31 +0000

I am Hakka. My parents and grandparents were refugees during the communist uprising. They are all deceased now and we were told when we were children that several of our paternal forefathers were imperial scholars and were married to emperor’s daughters. The first one was a Quan (in Hakka)and was in charge of several provinces/cities. We are related to Marshal Yeh. My grand uncle however was in the Nationalist Army and was imprisoned in Manchuria for many decade and only released when he was dying from prostate cancer. My younger grand uncle, my dad and the Colonel’s son were all in the Nationalist Army and one of my dad’s batchmate from the military school went on to become a prominent person in Taiwan. My dad’s name was Yeh Chi Tang. I have visited China but am still waiting to visit our ancestral home. I should have paid more attention when my grandparents used to tell us about our family. That hundreds of people lived in our ancestral home at one time. She also came from a prominent family. Her name was Chong Fong Yeun. She used to tell us that if you give the name of Jinqinglou to any Hakka in China they will know who we are. My youngest brother did visit the ancestral home several years ago and the rest of the siblings plan to do so soon. I think we are the 24 or 27 generation and our generation names were derived from a poem written by the first ancestral scholar.

By: LamPinFoo

LamPinFoo — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:11:28 +0000

The spelling of the surname Lim has been commonly used by many overseas Chinese dialect groups hailing from Fujian, Shantou areas of Guangdong, Hainan and Hakkas of Guangdong and Fujian. The Cantonese would normally spell it as Lam or Lum.

In Singapore and Malaysia, a Lam is more likely to be a Hakka, while a Lum spelling is preferred by Cantonese.

By the way, I am not an expert on surnames, and my views are based on common knowledge.