The following excerpt is from an article written by Liu Zhihua, and posted in the October 18, 2014 edition of usa.chinadaily.com:
A Dutch citizen eager to trace back his family history now helps many overseas Chinese do the same, Liu Zhihua reports.
Huihan Lie, a 36-year-old Dutch citizen, never expected he would someday make a profession out of helping fellow overseas Chinese find their roots through jiapu or “ancestry book,” when he first visited China in 2004.
Jiapu, also called zupu in Chinese, are records that are kept by clans of their lineage and histories. Lie didn’t know much about jiapu until he came to China.