There’s often confusion surrounding my family name, Chung. In Hong Kong, Chung is the common English translation of the Chinese surname 鍾 (written in traditional Chinese). However, this is not the accurate pronunciation in Cantonese; the correct pronunciation should be "Zhong." Despite this, most people in Hong Kong with the surname 鍾 have Chung as their official English surname on their identity cards or passports, making Chung the standard translation in Hong Kong.

Chinese University of Hong Kong website explains that 鍾 originally referred to a wine container in ancient China. However, many people who know traditional Chinese often confuse my surname with another character, 鐘, which is pronounced the same but has a different meaning. The latter character, 鐘, means "clock" today.

As a child, I noticed the Chinese words 穎川 written on my Grandpa's bicycle. Curious, I asked him about it, but he didn’t know the reason—he was simply following what my great-grandfather had done. As I grew older and explored my family tree, I discovered that 穎川 was where my ancestors lived over 2,000 years ago!

According to the records of my family tree, my 鍾 ancestors lived in 穎川 (Yingchuan, now in Henan Province, China) over 2,000 years ago. About 1,000 years ago, they migrated to the southern coastal regions, first to Fujian, then to Guangdong. A few decades ago, my grandparents brought my father and uncle to Hong Kong, which is where I was born and raised.