Your Chop Your Signature

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN TAIWAN

“AFFIX your chop here,” says the clerk behind the counter in the busy Taipei, Taiwan, post office.

“Affix my chop?” I mutter in total puzzlement. “But excuse me, I am new here. I don’t have a chop​—whatever that is,” I try to explain. “May I not just sign my name?”

“Yes, you may, but why not get a chop made?” responds the postal clerk. “Then you will not have any more trouble.”

Wondering what a chop is and where its strange name comes from, I do some digging. From my dictionary I learn that a chop is a seal or an official stamp or its impression and that “chop” comes from the Hindi word chāp, meaning “stamp.”

How to Acquire a Chop

First, I will need a Chinese name.a For a foreigner the name is often a transliteration of the sound of the name. For example, “John Smith” may become “Shih Mi Sse” or “Shih Yueh Han.” Or I can get a Chinese friend to help me choose a name. He will probably choose one that he thinks fits me, but it may not sound anything like my real name.

The next step is to visit the shop of a chop carver. There I select a suitable piece of material from the wide variety available. Then the artisan carves the stylized characters of my Chinese name on my chop.

I am now equipped to do business or make a transaction at a post office, a bank, or other place of official business. For certain legal transactions, the imprint or impression of my chop must be registered at the Household Registry Office. If it is for a corporation, then it is registered at the courthouse.

But I wonder how a clerk knows whether the chop is genuine. To find out and to see how chops are actually made, I pay a visit to Lin Rongdeh, a chop maker in the city of Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan. According to Mr. Lin, many people believe that even chops with the same name carved by the same chop maker are never exactly the same. To check if a chop is genuine, an office clerk would fold the impression in half, usually diagonally, and lay it over the impression already on file. The two halves should match exactly.

“Nowadays, though,” says Mr. Lin, pointing to a machine in his shop, “there are machines that can carve a chop with the help of a computer. Chops carved in this way could be identical.”

“That is amazing!” I respond. “But how do you make a chop with a computer?”

“First, I typeset or draw on a small piece of semitransparent paper or plastic the characters of the name in a form suitable for a chop,” explains Mr. Lin. “Then I place it on one rotating head of the machine, which reads the name by means of a laser beam. At the same time, I clamp the chop to be carved on a second rotating head, and a tiny router controlled by the laser beam carves the chop to form the characters I have drawn.”

As this method is quite inexpensive, usually each member of a family has a chop made. These are kept handy in the house to be used by anyone accepting registered mail or other items that would require a signature in Western lands.

Origin of the Chop

The first known use of a chop in China was in the year 1324 B.C.E. But not until the Chou dynasty (1122-256 B.C.E.) did they gain popularity. In those early times, rather than being used as a signature, they were carried, often at the girdle, to show rank or office or just to show that a person was honorable. It represented not so much the person as the position he held. The chop was, as it often is today, turned over to the next holder of the office on the retirement or death of the official. When a nobleman sought an audience with the emperor, he would present his jade chop to prove his identity.

When paper was invented, the chop gradually came to represent the signature. It came to be used more frequently even by ordinary people. Today, everyone here has a chop, even a foreign resident like me, and any transaction involving a person’s signature can be completed only with the use of the chop. Although officially a written signature may also be used, for most people it is the chop that makes things legal. This practice has spread to most of the Orient, so that the Japanese and the Koreans also use a chop.

What Chops Look Like

A chop may be square, oblong, oval, or round, or it may take innumerable other shapes. It may be as small as an eighth inch [3 mm] in diameter or as large as six inches [15 cm] square. A chop may be made of jade, soapstone, animal horn, bamboo, brass, wood, or plastic, depending on the wish and the means of the purchaser as well as the purpose for which the chop will be used. If a chop is to be used very seldom and for less important transactions, wood or plastic may suffice. But if the owner plans to use it throughout his lifetime, then he may choose a more valuable and attractive medium.

The official chop of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Taiwan branch, for example, is carved on a block of hardwood three inches [7.5 cm] long, two inches [5 cm] wide, and one inch [2.5 cm] thick. Rather a cumbersome “signature,” wouldn’t you say? Often the paper to be signed may not be much bigger!

The most common chops are plain pieces of the chosen material with the name carved in stylized Chinese on the flat bottom. A carving on the stem or at the top adds to the beauty and value of the chop. Some chops are very elaborate works of art. (See picture on page 23.) The owner will usually carry the chop either in a small leather sack or in a small box with a little compartment containing vermilion ink paste at one end. Sometimes a newly married couple will have their chops carved on two pieces taken or cut from the same stock and with matching designs​—a rather romantic notion. Or as is the case with the beautiful yellow-​jade chops pictured on page 23, the three chops and chains were all carved from one piece of stone.

Once carved, the chop becomes the legal signature of the owner or office holder, so it must be treated with utmost care. It must be guarded against theft, as a thief could use it to forge documents, withdraw money from banks, cash checks or bonds, and so forth.

What do I do if I lose my chop? First, I must notify the post office, bank, and other agencies concerned so that they can cancel my chop. I must, of course, do this immediately to prevent unlawful use of my chop. Then a new one must be made. If it is to replace a registered chop, I must go through the process of registering it again, and the offices concerned must be informed of my new chop. So you think losing a credit card is a hassle? It is a wise person who guards his chop against loss or theft!

In the West, philately, or stamp collecting, is a popular hobby. In China many people collect chops or the imprint of various chops, for which special books are published. Some chops are quite beautiful, since the style of the characters and the shape, color, and texture of the chop combine to give a most pleasing appearance. Chops that were once the property of famous or influential people or chops of special antiquity are often kept in museum collections.

For every person in the West who picks up a pen to sign some official document, there is probably someone in an Oriental land who takes out a chop, presses it a few times on the vermilion-​ink pad, and carefully stamps his “signature” on the dotted line.

How interesting different customs make life!

[Footnotes]

[Pictures on page 23]

Clockwise: Vermilion imprint of a chop; chops with chain, all carved from one piece of jade; chop maker carving a design; chop inscribed with a poem

Chop in the form of a turtle

[Credit Line]

Chops: National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan