The Complicated Chinese Family Tree

We've fixed our boo boos, straightened out the lines and added pinyin!

Did you know that every member of a Chinese family is called something different? Depending on whether it's from your mom's side or your dad's side and their seniority? It gets quite confusing, so we will draw it out for you in a family tree and hope you can learn some Chinese along the way! :) Please don't mind our terrible handwriting!

Note: There are still many more ways to call the same person, for example husband's mother can be called 家姑，家婆，婆婆 or 奶奶. This all depends on where you are from. To keep it simple, we just chose the more generic terms.

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[thespeedyyoshi]

I'm not only confused at the chinese names, but AMAZED at how you had each one look different.

[thelastdart]

This isn't a family tree....
It's a family forest :0

[aurelialucinus]

When your teacher asks for a family tree and an A4 sheet of paper just isn't enough.

[criskity]

It's so complicated that it confuses even native speakers of Chinese.

[ttproguy]

The first half can be summed up in one word in english: cousin

[ryutheslayer]

And this is why we don't have family reunions

[Amyna]

This is why they introduced the one child policy.

[AiyaaaJenny]

This is why every time when a family comes over or when I go to China for a visit I ask my parent, how do I call them?
I ask them all the time.
All the time.
Every time.
yup.

[Loneytoon]

It a bit hard to learn all the names for the different people, but at the same time they are making things easy for themselves. With just one word they can instantly tell you who their talking about instead of having to say "my great granddaughter from my daughter´s side husband".

[CantoMando]

The Chinese Family Tree is definitely the most complicated thing ever

[nnen]

It's actually easier than it seems in the video. Besides mom dad grand blabla, there are only 5 basic titles 姨，姑，舅，叔，伯.
Understand these five then follow the patterns:
1 The five basic titles are used to address siblings of all your elders including parents and grandparents. Use the five as prefix when addressing grandparent's siblings. e.g. 伯爷爷(uncle-grandpa)
2 Those with the same family name are assumed closer, thus those who don't, such as parents of your mother and children of your daughter, have the prefix 外(out). e.g..外孙，外公
3 (Helpful one) Whenever there's a cousin involved, whether yours or your parents' or grandparents', you use the word 表 or 堂 before everything. 表for those with different surnames, 堂for those sharing the same family name. e.g..表姑姑（cousin-auntie) 
4 To address whoever marries your relatives, put suffixes 妈 or 夫 after your relative's title. e.g. 姐夫(sister-husband) Doesn't apply to elder brother's or younger uncle's wives, don't know why.

[jingyasun]

I'm Chinese and I've long since given up on any of this. It's actually really impressive that she can remember all that.

[christievalda]

I am a Chinese. Cool, right? Well...




I got lost already.

[lawrenceyang]

In different places of China，we also have different names for them. I'm not talking about dialect，I'm talking about some vocabulary that mean the same thing.

[taufiqutomo]

That moment when you realize your whole life might not be long enough to remember and understand this four-minute lesson.

[ina]

Ahh，the beauty of Chinese. This is what happens when the culture is around 5000 years old.

[mma.y]

when even ur Chinese friends get confused

[rnbwbbt]

I'm Chinese yet watching this video confused me..T^T

[hengcao]

I am a Chinese and I love and am proud of our tight and huge family tree. Each branch of our family tree is an opportunity of help when you are in trouble.

[bbyingji]

I actually understood 90% of this because I meet my extended family very often. It's helpful when you're trying to figure out their position in the family.