Trying to make sense of all these terms that were in the back of my mind and attempting to bring them into the foreground.
I can recall hearing these terms as a child as elders would talk to each other during dim sum or when my parents bumped into people on the street - Sze Yap, Hoiping, Sam Yap - and never fully understanding what it meant.
They were sounds that somehow felt familiar and unknown at the same time.
Seeing this slide at the Chinese American Genealogy Workshop in San Francisco helped me make sense of what these terms mean, how they relate to each other, and to me.
I could now PLACE myself on this map. ■