Guo

"Kwok" redirects here. For the cooking pot, see wok.

"Guo", written in Chinese: 郭, is one of the most common Chinese surnames and means "the wall that surrounds outside a city" in Chinese; it can also be spelled Cok, Guo, Quo, Quoc, Quach, Quock, Que, Quek, Kuo, Kok, Koc, Kwok, Kuok, Gock or Koay. The different way of spelling of this surname indicates 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.

Origins

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 were only evidence of ancestry from Arab, or Persian, or other Muslim ancestors to be recognized as Hui, and they do not need to practice Islam. It was the Communist party and its policies which 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, some are 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. These Hui clans originating in Fujian have strong sense of unity among their members, despite being scattered across a wide area in Asia, such as Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Philippines.

On 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 too 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 Gui Ziyi contradicted their being Hui, which required foreign ancestry. Encyclopaedia Iranica claims the ancestor of the Guo clan in Baiqi was the Persian Ebn Tur (Daqqaq).

Some famous Chinese people with "郭" as the surname

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Guo.

• Guo Bingwen
• Guo Jia
• Guo Jing
• Guo Jingjing
• Guo Jingming
• Guo Moruo Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official from Sichuan, China.
• Guo Ziyi (697 – 781), general of Tang China who ended the Anshi Rebellion
• Guo Kan, a famed Chinese general that served under the Mongols.
• Guo Shoujing
• Guo Songtao The first Chinese minister to a western country
• Guo Xi
• Guo Yi
• Terry Gou, Taiwan Billionaire, 148th richest in the world
• Xiaolu Guo author
• Aaron Kwok a Hong Kong singer, actor.
• Tina Guo, virtuoso cellist
• Kenix Kwok a Hong Kong actress.
• Roger Kwok Chun On, a Hong Kong actor
• Kwok Ping-sheung, Walter, Hong Kong Billionaire
• Robert Kuok, Malaysia born Chinese, Hong Kong Billionaire
• Kwek Leng Beng, Singapore Billionaire, 3rd richest in South-east Asia
• Quek Leng Chan, Malaysia Billionaire, 4th richest in South-east Asia, cousin of Kwek Leng Beng
• Patrick S Kwok, Former Mayor of Cupertino, California
• Burt Kwouk, English-born Chinese actor

See also

• Kwak (surname), the same surname in Korean.