Chinese Genealogical Books
It is the Chinese tradition to record family members in a book, including every male born in the family, who they are married to, etc. Traditionally, only males' names are recorded in the books.
During the Cultural revolution, many of the books were forcefully destroyed or burned to ashes, because they were considered by the Chinese communist party as among the Four Old Things to be eschewed. Therefore much valuable cultural history was destroyed forever. Fortunately in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and areas untouched by the revolution, many Chinese people still kept their genealogy books, some of which are even a few thousand years old.
Read more about this topic: Genealogy Book
Famous quotes containing the word books:
“Most of us who turn to any subject we love remember some morning or evening hour when we got on a high stool to reach down an untried volume, or sat with parted lips listening to a new talker, or for very lack of books began to listen to the voices within, as the first traceable beginning of our love.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)