story about the two words: Lao and Jia
Lao Jia is the registered mark for Lao Jia Pizza. In Chinese, the two characters: 老家(pronounced Lao and Jia )means hometown. You may have heard that Chinese word has four tones:
1st tone: ―, 2nd tone: ↗ 3rd tone: ∨ 4th tone: ↘
For the pronunciation: Lao Jia, if you speak Lao in 3rd tone, and Jia in 1st tone, it means hometown, but if you speak Lao in 2nd tone and Jia in 4th tone, it means "excuse me".
From http://www.laojia.com.cn/en.htm
I would extend their definition to say patriarchal ancestral home. In my case, my dad's family is from Anxi, Fujian (the province across the straits from Taiwan) so I that is my lao jia. My mom is from Shanghai but despite Mao's efforts to foster gender equity, China is still a patriarchal society.
Bessie
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