Helen,
Sorry to have missed you in Shanghai, we were taken around by our friend and his personal assistant around Shanghai and the surroundings in their company car. We did the tour to Guilin, Nanjing and other places.
I rang your daughter's mobile number, when I had the opportunity, but had no reply because I was told usually one had to text first to confirm the identity of the caller before one answers an unknown phone number. We met a lot of young overseas Chinese seconded or working in China, they are doing extremely well, and having a wonderful time.
To keep on track with the genealogy thread I would like to give you the experience of two Malaysian friends who returned recently. This is a long thread. The first friend Francis went to seek his roots in ChungSan. He knew the name of the village and googled the general area. His late father had left a fairly detailed family history.
Francis took a bus to the nearest town and asked the driver to drop him and his wife and brother at the nearest village. The bus driver dropped them at the main village and he asked at the village for direction to the house. They hired two motorcycle taxis to the street after asking the taxis whether they knew the place.. Upon reaching the street, a three minute ride away, the taxi driver yelled out that their overseas relatives were looking for their relatives. Distant cousins tumbled out of their houses, and led them to the house of the last living relative, a 80 plus aged uncle. Francis nearly had a heart attack when he saw him as the old man was a spitting image of his late father.
The cousins used their mobile phone to round up their other relatives who were at work elsewhere, the relatives booked a huge feast for their reunion. The cousins were holding good posts and refused to allow Francis to pay for the reunion dinner. Francis left in awe at the tansformation of those now in China, he still remembers that during the war Francis's family used to send money and mundane things such as sewing machines, bicycles, things no longer in need now.
My son's Malaysian father-in-law returned from a three week tour of China and detoured to Foochow from his Shanghai-Xian-Beijing holiday route to trace his roots. He had the address of the Overseas Chinese Office and upon going to their office the officials made him very welcome.
The officials took notes of what details he had, started phoning around immediately, and arranged to meet them that evening to bring them their findings.
The officials met them at a restaurant serving sharkfin, abalone, roast suckling pig, and other delicacies. He still remember the mechanised rotating serving table groaning with the ample food. The head of the department met them during the meal briefly and left before the end of the meal as he had another appointment. The meal was paid by the junior officials!
Next morning the officials took them in their car to visit the village and met some relatives, had another huge meal and then went on to continue their China tour. Again an amazing experience.
Most forum members start from scratch, with a scribbled address and name from grave inscriptions or letters,etc. Some then join tours specialising in finding roots, this is the easiest way and has a high success rate. Our Malaysian friends could speak and write Mandarin which was helpful in dealing with the officials, but is not essential.
The most important action is to book the ticket to China. You will find the people, even complete strangers, will be extremely happy to assist the overseas relatives in finding their roots. Even if the root is not found the feeling of being in the place where your ancestors came from is pretty satisfying.
This forum will give you an extremely accurate target to aim for, there are so many helpful and sincere person willing to spend time to dig out information for you. Taking the trip can be an adventure even for those who cannot pinpoint exactly where they came from, inter-acting with the local people, and with the officials, and seeing the villages and streets, can be an unforgettable experience. This has been repeatedly stated by our regular forum members.
This input is written to encourage our forum members to make a visit to China, it is not necessary to overplan and to get details of every relative or house and village; many have disappeared or lost over the years. The first step has been taken, that is to join this forum, the next step is to go to China.
As Helen and other members have discovered, just being in the village and seeing the surroundings is ample reward to taking the trip. If the actual house and the relatives are found then this is an added bonus. My own trip to Haiyen was a trip of discovery, I did not intend to meet distant relatives, the generation we knew have all passed on.
Going to the village itself is an adventure. This journey can firstly be made with the assistance of a specialist travel agent in your own country who would plan all travel arrangements, liase with local authorities and village heads, guide you through the protocol of family reunions, provide you with the family history,etc.
The journey can also be made like our Malaysian friends who did a tour of China and diverted to their village as a side trip by themselves. They could do this as there was no language barrier, they had a rough idea of the location of the village, and they contacted the Overseas Chinese Department in that district who provided them with a lot of assistance.
My own trip was done at the spur of the moment, I had an address, I hopped on to a bus, contacted Henry's nephew when I was on the bus to Taisan, and hired a taxi for the day. This was extremely satisfying as although I did not meet, nor wanted to meet, any distant relative, the trip gave a good overview of the life of the villagers. It also whetted the appetite for further trips into the vast country of China. My trips to the major cities of China only scratched the surface of China and will plan to spend more time in the smaller towns and villages.
I had the pleasure of going to the shop of Tan Shi Ching's wife and attach a card of the shop, he and his family are a very humble, friendly and extremely helpful man. I was so glad to have met him and the smoothed the way in many a chaotic situation.
Joe
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