I wish to extend my congratulations to the Huang Association in Cambodia for playing host to the 11th & 2nd Session of World Huang Clan Convention in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
I welcome all the Huangs that are traveling from every corner of the globe to meet each other and discuss ways and means to promote the Huang family's values and principles and to forge business projects together.
The massive presence here in Phnom Penh of so many people bearing the surname of Huang is a testimony of their attachment to family ties, their endeavor to retrace the glorious history of Huang ancestry, and to discover new Huang faces. Knowing that the Huang family roots were over 4,200 years old, it is not an easy task to develop a proper network or system to identify our lineage.
In many occasions, political changes, wars, insecurity forced many Huangs to leave China and find new lands to live. Some did not even survive the travel through the oceans.
The zupu system in China can only provide erratic descriptions of the fate of those migrants. Whether we can retrace our roots down to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) or to the Huang roots in Jiangxia, Hubei province of the People's Republic of China, we can at least know that we are nowadays 32 million people or more around the world to bear the same surname.
Only with such an annual convention and interaction between various Huang Associations based in different countries can we re-establish our genealogy tree.
The more each Huang Association can incorporate members the more we will know how many we are.
My grand-father migrated from Fujian province in the early 20th Century and established himself in Tani, Kampot province, Cambodia.
Born Ung You Teckhor [Huang Yù Dé Hu˘], I survived the war and genocide in Cambodia while almost all of my elders lost their lives. I am therefore completely cut off my roots with the Huang. The only piece of information I know is that maybe my grandfather was from Xiamen, Fujian Province of the People's Republic of China.
Through the creation of the Huang Association of Cambodia, I hope to be able to re-assemble all the Huangs, collect their individual stories, and maybe one day be able to retrace our genealogy tree. Nowadays contact through the Internet will cut the distance and the time for us to interact.
Facebook, e-mails... will reconnect families together, reconnect a Huang to another Huang. My story is not different from those of our Huang members as some 300,000 are still struggling to find their roots in China!
Therefore, I wish the World Huang Clan Convention of this year be able to set directions for better connection among all of us, so that every Huang can share his story, his experience and maybe develop partnership in business or investment, or marriage. Piece by piece, the World Huang Clan Convention will help complete this puzzle.
Have a pleasant and fruitful stay in Cambodia, the Kingdom of Wonder! And let's join hands in making every one of us proud to be born a Huang!
