If you know Cantonese or have ever tried to learn it, you’ll be more than aware that vocab-wise, the Chinese family tree is most definitely a Monkey Puzzle. (That’s an Araucaria Araucana to all you gardening types.)
If you don’t know what we’re talking about, watch this video and all will become clear… or rather, unclear.
As always, however, McDonalds has come to the rescue!
Hat tip to Redditer “derfherdez” who spotted this handy infographic on a recent trip through the golden arches.
Whether it will actually help you get your head around why your dad’s sister’s kids are called something different to your mum’s sister’s kids is another matter entirely, however.
But maybe the Chinese family tree doesn’t branch out far enough.
As one commentator put it, “What about new partners of widows/widowers? Godparents? Step-parents? Same-sex couples? Non-binary gender identifying relatives? Are modern relations outside of the heterosexual nuclear family too radical a concept for ‘Asia’s world city’?”
Hopefully those ideas won’t catch on or there’ll be no hope for any of us!
