Sometimes “Gong” comes after the family and given names (as in the gravestone of “Low Goon Chung” below), and sometimes the word “Gong” is not present and only the family name and given name/s. Occasionally a character transliterated in pinyin and Cantonese as “Gong” appears between the family name and the given names (as in the gravestone of “Chew Hing” below). ![]() ![]() Most gravestones have the family name first followed by the given names. This pattern is not always followed especially with gravestones found overseas: the east (right) and west (left) pattern are not necessarily observed, although the center is always reserved for the name of the deceased. Information about the date and place of birth and age of the deceased is usually inscribed on the right hand side (east) and the date and time of death is found on the left (west).Ĭharacters across the top usually give the district or province of birth. The center column, not surprisingly, gives the name of the deceased. The size of the writing indicates the relative importance of the information. The writing in the middle column tends to be larger than that on the side columns. ![]() A Guide to Reading Engravings on Chinese TombstonesĪ Chinese gravestone usually has at least three columns of characters.
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