Chinese Language Learning Program Lesson 67 – Chinese Surnames

Chinese Language Learning Program

Lesson 67– Chinese Surnames

Hello, everyone. Welcome back. This is Baixue’s Chinese Language Learning Program. Last time we talke about Chinese New Year. Today, we will talk about Chinese surnames.

I know it is not easy to pronounce foreign names or surnames. I’ve been there. So I hope this lesson will be helpful for non-Chinese speaking friends to say Chinese surnames.

There is one book named “bǎi jiā xìng” in China which is composed of common Chinese surnames.

bǎi jiā xìng

 百  家  姓 (The Hundred Family Surnames)

This book originally contained 411 surnames, but was later expanded to 504. Of these, 444 are single-character surnames, and 60 are double-character surnames.

It is true that you will run into the same surnames again and again in China, so it helps to become familiar with the most common ones. You’ll rarely meet a Chinese person with a surname not in this list of 100.

For the origin of Chinese Surnames and more information about them, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Family_Surnames  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames  or  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_surname

Today, we will learn how to pronounce them and how they look like in Chinese pinyins and in Chinese characters.

 

            

Today’s idiom is:

tiān yī wú fèng

 天  衣  无   缝 (flawless; perfect; Seamless)

dāng rán zhè tào xì tǒng yě bù shì tiān yī wú fèng de.

  当     然   这   套  系  统   也  不  是   天   衣  无  缝    的。

(The system, of course, is not flawless.)

Ok, that is all for today.

xiè  xiè!

 谢   谢 ! (Thanks!)

xià  cì  jiàn 

 下  次  见!  (See you next time!)