张肇鸿：《亚省华人历史文化大观园》之 墓碑谜团 (7)

张肇鸿：《亚省华人历史文化大观园》之 墓碑谜团 (7) 凤凰城 张肇鸿(After the article "The Tombstone Mystery" was published, it caused a stir in the overseas Chinese community...

Phoenix City Zhang Zhaohong

(After the article "The Tombstone Mystery" was published, it caused a lot of responses in the overseas Chinese community. Under the care and guidance of Yu Wenjin, a senior overseas Chinese leader, members of the Feini Chinese Welfare Association, Deng Gaomi Office, Kaiping Association, Overseas Chinese Federation, "Sunbird" Arizona Chinese Network, American Western Overseas Chinese News and other units will go to the "Pioneer & Military Memorial Cemetery" at 10:30 a.m. on May 26 (Monday, Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers). Park), Address: 1317 W. JEFFERSON ST Phoenix, AZ 85007, let’s commemorate Deng Xiangyuan, the ancestor of the Chinese people in Phoenix. Friends who are interested in local Chinese history and culture are welcome to attend)

Every year on Memorial Day, bustling Americans and ethnic minorities come to the cemetery to mourn their ancestors and soldiers

Hua. The tomb of Deng Xiangyuan's ancestor (left) in the cemetery is lonely and deserted

To solve the "tombstone mystery", I looked up the Chinese Deng family tree. From the Deng family tree, I learned about the process of the Deng family's southward migration. At the end of the southward migration process, the Deng family moved overseas, and finally traced it to the United States, but encountered a bunch of troubling Chinese and English names!

Most Chinese surnames can be traced back to their roots, and the context is clear. It's just that overseas, simple Chinese names are translated into alternative words in different cultural backgrounds. Some names are not only incomprehensible to Americans, but also to us Chinese ourselves. For example, how can the word "Deng" be pronounced as: Ong, Teng, Dong, etc.? ! In the process of researching the "tombstone mystery", I came across a bunch of confusing Chinese and English names.

On page 19 of the second volume of the 1990-1992 Pioneer & Military Memorial Park (P&MMP) Archaeological Project in Phoenix, Arizona, edited by American archaeologist KJ Schroeder, the Latin alphabet pinyin names of 23 Chinese people buried in the "Ancestors and Military Memorial Cemetery" Chinese cemetery are listed (arranged in alphabetical order by surname). For ease of separation, I separated the names below by numbers.

1.Ching, Yug 2. Deng, Xian Yuan 3.Dong, Shee Yip 4.Fong, Lee 5.Fong, Ving Wing 6.Gow, Wang 7.Hop, Quong 8.Jung, Sam 9.Kee, Sam 10.Leo, Pon 11.Lung, Yin 12. Lung, Soot 13.Sing, Ong 14.Weh, Quang 15.Whoo, Sam 16.Wie, Lim Hong 17.Wing, Jim 18.Wing, Quan 19.Ye, Hong Git 20.Yep, Yuang 21.York, Lee 22.Yuan, Tim 23.Yuen, Tec

After careful study, I found that although these name data were written by serious American archaeologists, there are still many points worthy of discussion:

1. Among the 23 Chinese burials, 18 have names with only two characters, accounting for 78% of all names. This is not in line with the percentage of Chinese names, because most Chinese names are composed of three Chinese characters. Why do many early Chinese immigrants to the United States only have two characters in their names? One reason that comes to mind is that the name of the deceased may not be comprehensive, or it may only have a first name without the ancestral surname. This is because in that era of Chinese civilization, the Chinese did not register with their real names or full names. This is also an explanation.

2. Except for No. 2 Deng and Xian Yuan, the rest of the names are not written in English or Chinese pinyin. They seem to be the transliteration of the local pronunciation in the Siyi area. Due to different dialects in each township, the names have been translated from the original Chinese to English. It is more difficult to accurately translate back to Chinese. Even the surname and name are not sure. How can we find their descendants?

3. The name of No. 2 is Xian Yuan. If Xian is Xiang, it is the Chinese pinyin of Deng Xiangyuan. Is this a coincidence or is it someone else? Or is it just the Chinese Pinyin translated directly by archaeologists based on the names on the inscriptions? Requires expert verification.

4. If the two characters representing the deceased are not names, but just names, there will be a lot of room for association. For example, in the early days of this town, the Deng family was the most common surname. Among the names were Yuan (Yuan), Yip (Yip), and Long (Lung), many of the above names were related. However, since these data are published in archaeological magazines and are authoritative, the hypotheses put forward are for reference only.

5. According to the grammatical regulations, if the surname is written in front of the name in English, a comma must be used to separate the following names; if there is no comma, then the last English word is the surname, and the first name is the name. Mr. Tang Xiaoxian was very enthusiastic and once made guesses about the surnames of 23 Chinese people (in brackets below):

1.Ching (金?), Yug 2. Deng (Deng), Xian Yuan 3. Dong (东?), Shee Yip 4. Fong (square?), Lee 5. Fong (square?), Ving Wing 6.Gow (高?), Wang 7.Hop (何?), Quong 8.Jung (江?), Sam; 9.Kee (邱?), Sam 10.Leo, Pon 11.Lung, Yin 12.Lung, Soot 13.Sing, Ong 14.Weh, Quang 15.Whoo, Sam 16.Wie, Lim Hong 17.Wing, Jim 18.Wing, Quan 19.Ye (袁?), Hong Git 20.Yep (叶?), Yuang 21.York (苞?), Lee 22.Yuan (元?), Tim 23.Yuen (袁 ?), Tec

However, among the many surnames mentioned above, except for the surnames Deng, Fang, and Yu, the other surnames such as Long, Jin, Wei, Yun, Wei, Yu, and Xin are rare in the Siyi area where they immigrated at that time, and their descendants are difficult to find in today's Phoenix City.

In order to further understand the situation, I found relevant information in the cemetery files based on the names of the 23 Chinese people in the book: (each line below starts with the name, followed by the date of death, the age of the deceased and the area number of the tomb where he is buried. The last no means there is no more information)