Language(s) Old Chinese | Derivative(s) Quach, Kwak | |
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Pronunciation Guō (Pinyin)
Kueh, Kok (Pe̍h-ōe-jī) Language(s) Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean Variant(s) Kwok, Guok (Cantonese)
Guo, Kuo (Mandarin)
Gue, Kue, Koay, Quek, Kwik (Hokkien, Teochew)
Quách (Vietnamese)
Kwak (Korean) | ||
"Guo", written in Chinese: 郭, is one of the most common Chinese surnames and means "the wall that surrounds a city" in Chinese; it can also be transliterated into English as Cok, Guo, Quo, Quek, Kuo, Kuoch, Kok, Koc, Kwek, Kwik, Kwok., Kuok, Kuek, Gock, Koay or Ker. The Korean equivalent is spelled Kwak; the Vietnamese equivalent Quoc, Quach, Quock or Que. The different ways of spelling this surname indicate the origin of the family. For example, "Kwok" is Cantonese originated in Hong Kong and surrounding area. It is the 18th most common family name in China. The name Guo was noted as far back as the Xia Dynasty. There are eight legendary origins for the Guo surname. Among them, three are foreign. They are Persian (Hui), Korean, and Mongolian, as a result of sinicization. These are only minority. The majority of people bearing this surname are descended from Han Chinese.
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Hui surname
The Guo family is one of the well known Hui clans around Quanzhou in Fujian, the other being the Ding family, they are examples of these Hui who identify as Muslim by nationality but do not practice Islam. Due to more people of these clans identifying as Hui the population of Hui as grown. All these clans needed was evidence of ancestry from Arab, Persian, or other Muslim ancestors to be recognized as Hui, and they did not need to practice Islam. The Communist party and its policies encouraged the definition of Hui as a nationality or ethnicity. The Chinese government's Historic Artifacts Bureau preserved tombs of Arabs and Persians whom Hui are descended from around Quanzhou. Many of these Hui worship village gods and do not have Islam as their religion; they include Buddhists, Daoists, followers of Chinese Folk Religions, secularists, and Christians. Many clans with thousands of members in numerous villages across Fujian recorded their genealogies and had Muslim ancestry. Hui clans originating in Fujian have a strong sense of unity among their members, despite being scattered across a wide area in Asia, such as Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Philippines.
In Taiwan there are also descendants of Hui who came with Koxinga who no longer observe Islam, the Taiwan branch of the Guo (romanized as Kuo in Taiwan) family is not Muslim, but still does not offer pork at ancestral shrines. The Chinese Muslim Association counts these people as Muslims. The Taiwan Guo now view their Hui identity as irrelevant and don't assert that they are Hui.
Various different accounts are given as to whom the Hui Guo clan is descended from. Several of the Guo claimed descent from Han chinese General Guo Ziyi. They were then were distressed and disturbed at the fact that their claim of descent from Guo Ziyi contradicted their being Hui, which required foreign ancestry. Encyclopædia Iranica claims the ancestor of the Guo clan in Baiqi was the Persian Ebn Tur (Daqqaq).