A look into my family background and where my ancestors lived before my parents moved to the UK from Hong Kong in 1981.
The "Do/Du" (杜) family came with multiple origins.
Du is ranked top 47th surname in china by population size and from ancient scripts we know this is one of the oldest surnames dating back around the time of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di). More than 4000 years a go. Some members of the Du (杜) family are the Tuoba (拓跋) family of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei.
Xi-an, China
Our ancestors of the Du family are known as the Tangdu. The Tangdu resided southeast of Xi an in Shaanxi province (陝西).
In the Zhou Dynasty, the emperor relocated part of Qi family (祁姓) from city of Tang-Du (唐杜) to the city of Du (杜) near where we now call Xi’an (西安) then the family changed their last name to Du. Later on this family became the main origin for most Du families. Xi’an was the capital for thirteen dynasties and was very famous from Han to Tang Dynasty.
After the Shang-Zhou Dynasty revolution, some Du tribes (also in Xi’an area) with the last name 姜（Jiang) also merged with the Du family and changed their last name to Du.
The Fan 范 and Du clans also share a common ancestor
Here is the population density map for the Du clan, we can see how the majority of Du family still live in Xi’an - Lanzhou area. Some of them live in Xinjiang due to the Xinjiang production corps that were sent from Xi’an - Lanzhou region
Later on one branch of Du family relocated to Korea and became their own family branch the Dureung Du clan 杜陵杜氏（두릉 두씨）
Some famous "Du's"
Du Fu (杜甫) (712–770) (The most famous poet in China- known as the Chinese Shakespeare)
Du Bo (杜伯) was the Duke of Tangdu (唐杜公) during the reign of Zhou Xuan Wang (827 – 781 BCE)
Du Yu (杜预) officer of the Jin Dynasty
Du Ruhui (杜如晦) (585-630), nephew of Du Yan Chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
Du Mu (杜牧) a poet of the Tang dynasty
Lady Du Qiu (杜秋娘) poetess during the Tang dynasty
Hanoi, Vietnam
During the French rule of Vietnam between 1925 and 1933, nearly 600,000 Chinese emigrated to North Vietnam including my great grandparents and in the Second Sino-Japanese war that took place from 1937 to 1941, many Chinese left for South Vietnam but my great grandparents remained in the North. Tensions between newly reunified Vietnam and China led to a mass exodus in 1978, when 150,000 ethnic Chinese fled Northern Vietnam for China due to fears of war. So in April, May 1978 my family fled to Guangxi, China and my parents moved onto Hong Kong in June 1979.
In the aftermath of the subsequent 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, the Vietnamese government made considerable efforts to drive out remaining ethnic Chinese residents, but many remained in the country; resulting in large Chinese communities in Vietnam that persists today. I still have some family living in North Vietnam today that could not leave at the time as they were working for the Vietnamese government at the time.
London, United Kingdom
From Hong Kong, my uncles, aunts, parents immigrated across the globe, US, Canada, China and UK. My parents moved to Newport in Wales in February 19th 1981 and then finally settling in London in 1982.
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