A man who once was an avid stamp collector has turned his energies toward a different kind of collectible — surnames. Over the past decade, he has collected more than 200 rare Chinese surnames from friends, relatives, coworkers and even strangers he found in a telephone directory.
Kuo Chih-hsiang (郭智祥) collects surnames by sending an envelope to a person with an unusual surname and have him or her write back with a photocopy of any document that can prove that person’s identification.
Kuo said his surname collection began more than 10 years ago when he asked a Chinese man, Yao Ke (要可), with whom he intended to exchange stamps at the time, to prove his unusual family name. A month later, Kuo received a copy of Yao’s ID card via mail, which inspired him to start collecting rare Chinese surnames.
PHOTO: YANG JIOU-YIN, TAIPEI TIMES
At first, Kuo collected unusual surnames from friends who were also stamp collectors by exchanging postal products. Later, he started looking up strange surnames in a telephone directory. However, by doing so, he said he scared many people as he insisted on obtaining photocopies of their ID cards. At long last, he began accepting other types of identification, such as driver’s licenses, student IDs, diplomas, club membership cards, hospital receipts and even bank statements.
To complete the process, Kuo said he would first ask a person with a rare family name for his or her address and then send them a self-stamped envelope. After that, he would either visit in person to pick up the envelope or have the person mail it back.
Some of the rare surnames Kuo has collected include Hu (虎, tiger), Yi (蟻, ant), Shui (水, water), Yun (雲, cloud), Suo (鎖, lock), Dan (但, but) and Mai (買, buy).
Some of the surnames were so rare that the character could not be found on a computer, he said.
Pang Shou-neng (逄守能), a local postmaster in Taichung City, remembered that Kuo had to travel from Taipei to Taichung to meet him to pick up the necessary information for his collection.
“Seeing him so committed, I decided to make friends with him,” Pang said. “But since scams have become so prevalent, if he had asked me for a copy of my ID back then, I wouldn’t have given it to him.”
An elderly woman surnamed Tse (策) told Kuo that very few people had the surname Tse, adding that she was worried it would soon become extinct.
Kuo said this made him realize that his efforts were valuable.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we