寻根

尋根

xúngēn

verb #35,125

Meanings

1 to seek one's roots (ancestral, cultural)
2 to get to the bottom of a matter

Characters

to seek; search

Examples

很多海外华人回中国寻根。

Hěnduō hǎiwài huárén huí Zhōngguó xúngēn.

Many overseas Chinese return to China to seek their roots.

他想寻根问底,弄清楚事情的真相。

Tā xiǎng xúngēn-wèndǐ, nòng qīngchu shìqing de zhēnxiàng.

He wants to dig down to the roots and figure out the truth.

Tips

culture

寻根 has a strong cultural meaning in Chinese — overseas Chinese (海外华人) returning to ancestral villages to research family genealogies (族谱). It also names a 1980s literary movement, 寻根文学 ("root-seeking literature"), in which writers explored regional folk traditions.

Stroke Order

寻 xún

根 gēn