Eng Family Association

The Eng Family Benevolent Association in Boston’s Chinatown is a mutual aid and social organization for members of the Eng, Ng and Wu family. It gives members a place to bond, support one another, socialize and learn from each other’s experiences while keeping alive the customs and traditions of the old country. The association also promotes activities that benefit the public at large and cooperates with other organizations and agencies that share its goals.

Membership is tied to a single surname: anyone whose family name is written with the Chinese character Ng (Wu in Mandarin) can join. Because Ng has no vowel, many families in the United States changed the spelling to Eng or Ing, which explains the association’s name. The family traces its history to around 700 BC in the Chu Kingdom, when the royal adviser Wu Can received a land grant in the area known as Wu and his relatives adopted its name.

What to Know

• The Boston group is part of the World Eng Family Benevolent Association network.
• Ng is the Cantonese pronunciation of the surname.
• The family’s ancestral region lies in present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces.
• The family has continued for more than 80 generations since Wu Can, according to the association.