Michael Timothy
How to Call Family Member in Chinese I understand several words for family in Chinese. Baba, mama, didi, gege, meimei. qieqie. Nainai and yeye for grandparent of the father side and waipo and waigong for grandparents of the mother side. But beyond that, I still confuse. If you could tell me a full list of how to call a family, I'll be grateful. Thank You
Jan 28, 2016 9:09 AM
Answers · 5
1
This is a long and complicated topic! :) I'll start with the ***first cousins*** -- the children of your parents' siblings -- and let others do the rest. Since you know gege / didi and jiejie / meimei, you should have no trouble grasping this! Tangge 堂哥 and tangdi 堂弟: older and younger male cousins, but only **the sons of your father's brothers**. "Tang" 堂means "ancestral hall", the place where Chinese families used to put the tablets of their ancestors. In traditional society, your father's sisters were married out into another clan, so their tablets and those of their children didn't belong in **your** family's ancestral hall. Tangjie 堂姐 and tangmei 堂妹: older and younger female cousins who are the daughters of your father's brothers. Biaoge 表哥 and biaodi 表弟: older and younger male cousins who are the sons of your father's sisters or of any of your mother's siblings. Biaojie 表姐 and biaomei 表妹: older and younger female cousins who are the daughters of your father's sisters or of any of your mother's siblings.
January 28, 2016
it's not " qieqie", it's "jiejie"
January 29, 2016
Just google "Chinese kinhip" and you will get plenty of answers, one of them is the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_kinship
January 28, 2016
Dear Fabien.. Thank you so much,... but actually in Chinese family there're even larger family member. In my family we used ayi to call for aunt too. But there's a problem, in my family for instance there are the sister and brother of my grandma (mother side). And of course the sister and brother of my grandma is also had children, and grandchildren (which makes them my cousin). how to call to such a huge family in Chinese?
January 28, 2016
Uncles and aunts: if only it were that simple... :) As with cousins, there is a strong difference between the patriline (the people who bear your father's surname) and the rest, and between "blood" relatives and relatives by marriage. Father's older brother: bobo 伯伯 [father's younger brother's wife: bomu 伯母] Father's younger brother: shushu 叔叔 [father's younger brother's wife: shenshen 婶婶] Father's sisters (older or younger): gugu 姑姑 [father's sister's husband: gufu 姑父] Mother's brothers: jiujiu 舅舅 [mother's brother's wife: jiuma 舅妈] Mother's sisters: ayi 阿姨 [mother's sister's husband: yifu 姨父] So the words for "aunt" are gugu, ayi, shenshen, and bomu. And the words for "uncle" are bobo, shushu, jiujiu, gufu, and yifu! Note that "shushu" and "ayi" are generic terms of address for men and women of your parents' generation.
January 28, 2016
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