Chinese New Year is the time when we meet lots of relatives and family members, some of which we only see once a year.

As parents and elder folks rattle off a bunch of names and relationships in Chinese or dialect, there are times when all we can do is to react with our blur facial expressions or blank looks.

For many millennials, trying to make the distinction between paternal and maternal relatives is already tough enough, for the only thing we know is to address them as our "Aunties" and "Uncles".

Fear not, China digital company Xiaomi has launched a most useful "relative calculator"(亲戚计算器) that helps to know your paternal uncles and aunties from your maternal uncles and aunties, and also relatives of your wife's family.

Here is an example:

The calculator begins with "me" (我), pressing the "wife" (妻) button yields the informal term for "my wife" (老婆), and my wife's mother (我妻子的妈妈) produces the term for "mother-in-law"(岳母).

Here is another example:

My mother-in-law's elder brother (我妻子的妈妈的哥哥) is my (舅岳父), and his son (我妻子的妈妈的哥哥的儿子) is my cousin-in-law (表大舅), his daughter (我妻子的妈妈的哥哥的儿子的女儿) will be my (表侄女).

Her son (我妻子的妈妈的哥哥的儿子的女儿的儿子) is my "mum's grand nephew" (外表侄孙).

Not all inputs can produce an answer

After which at this point (我妻子的妈妈的哥哥的儿子的女儿的儿子的儿子), the calculator will give up and say: It's complicated.

Still, it's a pretty intelligent calculator. Being a Chinese with many family members is not easy huh?

All photos from Xiaomi.

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