Overseas Chinese people looking for family roots

Speakers: Heyang, Ryan Price, and Niu Honglin

[Photo: Baidu.com]   

Recently, more Chinese people living overseas are looking for their family roots back in China, and Chinese people living in Mainland are searching for their ancestries as well. As a result, it boosts the business of constructing a family tree. 

Among the 50 million Chinese living abroad, their ancestors lived in China in different periods of time and experienced unlike cultures. As family stories pass down to the next generation, the memory about their ancestors is fading as time goes by. Therefore, more people put effort in looking for the background of their ancestors, and hope their stories would help them define who they are. 

Huihan Li the CEO of the family tree business further explains why overseas Chinese people want to know more about their ancestors. He says: “What really drives me is the more you find out about your roots, the more you discover how similar we all actually are. We all come from different places and cultures, but in the end, we have a lot in common. Going on this journey has made me more open and tolerant.”

People at different ages also have different purposes to build up their family trees. Listen to the show and find out more about the overseas Chinese people's mentalities. 

The audio clip is from Round Table, produced by CRI.