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华侨 (Huá qiáo) — overseas Chinese (Chinese national living abroad)

Definition

A Chinese national who lives abroad. Crucially, 华侨 still holds Chinese citizenship — unlike 华人 (ethnic Chinese, any nationality) or 华裔 (of Chinese descent).

noun
overseas Chinese (Chinese national living abroad)
Measure word · 个, 位, 名

Examples

  • 华侨。
    Zhè wèi Huá qiáo wèi jiā xiāng juān jiàn le yì suǒ xué xiào.
    This overseas Chinese donated to build a school in his hometown.
  • 华侨。
    Xǔ duō Huá qiáo zài hǎi wài yī rán bǎo liú zhe zhōng guó guó jí.
    Many overseas Chinese still retain Chinese citizenship abroad.
  • 华侨。
    Nà míng Huá qiáo huí guó cān jiā wén huà jiāo liú huó dòng.
    That overseas Chinese returned to China to attend a cultural exchange event.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

华huáChinese
侨qiáoemigrant

The 'Chinese' sense of 华 and the 'emigrant' sense of 侨 combine to mean overseas Chinese.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 華; 华 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 華 showed flowers on a plant, with stalk and leaves below. The simplified 华 is a later shorthand and not the original picture.

Open 华 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 僑; 侨 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rén
Sound part声符shēngfú
喬
喬qiáo僑qiáo
Same sound today

The traditional form 僑 pairs 亻 (person) with 喬 as a sound part; the simplified 侨 is a later shorthand.

Open 侨 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6

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