Books of Interest on Wuyi

[raymond]

On my October 2009 trip to my ancestral motherland in Xinhui County in Guangdong Province, China, I purchased 3 books on the 5-County area called Wuyi ("Umm Yup" in local dialect Cantonese), the area from which a multitude of Overseas Chinese migrated to the Western World and parts of Southeast Asia in the late 1800's/early 1900's. Although these books are written in Chinese and I cannot read Chinese, I instinctively had to purchase the books because they are part of my Chinese culture and heritage. Ultimately, someone somewhere who is Chinese and English-literate may be kind enough to translate the content of these books and share them with us Chinese who are Chinese-illiterate. Collectively, the books present the highlights of the Wuyi area.....areas of particular interest and beauty, places of cultural and historical significance, notable achievements, and people who have left their marks in the Wuyi area. Additional description of the books may be found at the weblink: legacy1.net/literature-on-wuyi/

Happy reading,
Raymond

[Ah Gin]

Raymond,

Welcome back to the Forum. No doubt you had a memorable and probably emotional return to your Ancestral Home. Our heritage connections is strong in most of us and I hope it will be passed down from generation to generation. I know the feeling, on every occasion when I returned to my little village, where it may be a relatively poor location, but we are collectively very proud of our heritage.

It is good that you have collected the book and be prepared to share the book with someone later on who is willing to translate the book. There are of course material available on the web regarding Say Yup and Ng Yup, but nothing beats a book devoted to the subject specificically.

As one of our members from Malaysia recently posted, when he visited his homeland, he had the good fortune of owing a Zupu/Jiapu, which is no longer readily available in his ancestral village, for a variety of sad reasons of social history, which thankfully is in the past. And he was willing to share his copy with his village Elders as well.

In our case of the samll clan of Gin/Yan/Zhen, in 1996, our Clan Association in San Francisco republished a copy of a Zupu, first published in 1889. And that was in part to ensure members of our clan elsewhere, including China will have access to such valuable historical documents. Yes, the original was not readily available after the Cultural Revolution. So it was the Overseas Chinese such as ourselves who had the copy.

Onece more, welcome back. I am sure you will return to your homeland very soon again.

Regards, Ah Gin

[douglaslam]

Hi Raymond,

If things had gone to plan, I should be in in Wuyi , Hoiping or thereabout now with my family. Instead, I am sizzling in 40 deg C or 100 F in Sydney. No, I am not from Siyi but my wife is.

I have been to Hoiping and Xinhui once on separate occasions but didn't get to see much. My next trip is going to be more extensive, perhaps early next year. You home county Xinhui is very close to mine, Zhongshan. Whenever Xinhui is mentioned, I always think of its famous son Liang Qichao. Liang was a colossal figure in modern Chinese history. He was a reformer and a great literary figure, and he toured Australia extensively early 20th Cent. His birth place was turned into a museum. Did you visit it whist you were there? Liang is a person I admire very much.

history.cultural-china.com/en/58History5691.html

Douglas

[douglaslam]

There is a hiccup with that copy and paste link. Just Google Liang Qichao and there is plenty on him in both Chinese and English.

[tyuti1668]

the "3 books" that Raymond bought

岭南五邑 ISBN：7108023415 Amazon CN
情牵五邑 ISBN：7536235062 Amazon CN
古今新会风光诗选 ISBN: 780689287

[raymond]

Douglas,

I first learned of Liang Qichao a few years back on an earlier trip to Xinhui. A friend served as my tour guide and took me to the birthplace of Liang Qichao in Chakeng Village where there is a museum and a proud statue of the man in the village. On a later trip my cousins took me to Kaiping to see the famous diaolu's there, one of which was the most famous Li Gardens. Inside one of the European-style buildings I saw an entire exhibit of the revolutionary government reform works of Liang Qichao, and at that time it dawned on me what a great and proud native son of Xinhui he was.

Raymond