MR. TIEN—Let me show you. (Goes out by the dining-room door)
MRS. TIEN—What could it be? But I am glad that he is opposed to this union.
MISS TIEN—(Reflecting, then suddenly showing determination) I know what to do.
MR. TIEN—(Enters with a set of big folio volumes) Here is our genealogy. (Turning over the leaves) Look at this long line of our ancestors and see if there has been any marriage between the Chens (陈) and the Tiens (田).
MISS TIEN—Why couldn’t there be any marriage between the two families?
MR. TIEN—Because it is the custom of the country to forbid intermarriage between persons bearing the same family name.
MISS TIEN—But our family is Tien and Mr. Chen’s family name is Chen: we are not of the same family name.
MR. TIEN—Yes, we are of the same family name. About two thousand five hundred years ago, these two words, Tien and Chen, were pronounced in the same way, and our family name was sometimes written in the form of Chen and sometimes in the form of Tien. As the ages passed by, these two words came to be pronounced quite differently, and the two branches of our family had all the appearances of a separate origin. But the philologists know it, and our family records show that the two families have sprung from one and the same stock. The law of both the Chen family and the Tien family forbids intermarriage between them.
MISS TIEN—Does this prohibition apply to persons whose relationship dates back two thousand five hundred years?