The Chung-Gon family of Tasmania, Australia

[richardn23]

James Chung-Gon was born in South China in 1855 and came to Australia as a young lad after hearing about the gold rush. He died in Launceston in 1952, aged 97 years.

The family is well known in Launceston, where the Chung-Gon greengrocer's business has operated for many years. I am advised this business is about to close.

Information provided by the family can be found at
www.chung-gon.com/

There is an entry for James Chung Gon in the Australian Dictionary of Biography - see
adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chung-gon-james-9745

Richard

[laohuaqiao]

Chung-Gon is an impressive clan, with only a little over 100 years of history in Australia. I can see how in Taishan one family can sprout into a clan of thousands members within 600 years or so.

In recent years, a few of the Chung-Gon descendants returned to their ancestral village Pinggang in Xinhui. There was a description of the welcome given by the village officials and there was a offering of bananas and mandarin oranges on the table in the center of the room. I smiled and wondered if the visitors realized that, potentially, the most valuable items on that table were the orange peels. Xinhui is well known for its dried orange peels. Some that have been aged for nearly a 100 years have been auctioned off for more than 100,000 RMB per 100grams! or about $5,000 US an ounce, 3 times as much as current prices for gold!

[chansomvia]

I have just returned from our village and used Xin Hui as the base to get around. We were given a large bag of the famous dried orange peel from our village an hour drive southwest of Xin Hui in Haiyan as a present, however any citrus product is not allowed into New Zealand and I lost the dried orange peel to the Customs who destroyed them.

I learnt later, in hindsight, that these citrus product could have been heat treated by a firm authorised by NZ Customs and allowed in the country, it costs NZ$160 to have this done. The product would be heated to 85 degree C for a certain time then released to the owner: I wish I had this done as the orange peel must have been dried naturally for months, or longer, and is not available in New Zealand. It was painful losing these irreplaceable orange peel, and even more painful to realise the monetary loss.

Orange peels were on sale in Xin Hui, the best were kept in locked drawers. However getting the valuable genuine village orange peel is on my net to-do list, there is no standard of measure to determine the quality of the orange peel sold but if handed a bag from someone in the village who lovingly dried the orange peel personally from selected peel would beat any orange peel sold.

The trip to our village was an incredible experience, combining modern transport and phones to get around, and to meet in contrast the simple village folks in the hundred year old houses. I will try to post some photos.

This forum provided the impetus to search for the village, the help provided by Henry Tom was immense, but missed out on meeting Philip Tan in Kuala Lumpur as we had to rush to attend the funeral of my sister-in-law in another state of Malaysia. Again, meeting with Philip is on the next to-do list.

Joe

[douglaslam]

Joe, It was a costly oversight. A similar thing happened to Henry on his departure from Sydney Airport in December, 2010. He bought canned abalone, and took the cans as cabin luggage. They were seized because there was liquid in them. He was fuming needless to say. He wasn't allow to have the cans as late check-in items.

The specific variety mandarin peels are very valuable as home remedy and spice. They are excellent in neutralising mucus secretion, can also be applied to lesions and other afflictions. A very versatile and valuable traditional remedy.

You'll find in Hong Kong, I assume in China also, some fruit vendors will sell you mandarins without the peel. Xin Hui oranges are green in colour and very, very sweet.

Xin Hui is very close to my own county. Last time I spent a little time there was perhaps eight or ten years ago. The stream that ran through the centre of town is now filled in or covered up. Douglas

[chansomvia]

Douglas, thanks for your additional information, only by sharing will the usefulness of this excellent forum increase. The NZ junior custom officer tried in fact to help me, I think my citrus product was the only item detained from the whole plane load of passengers from Singapore, I had loads of tea, dried prawns (from the village ponds and sun dried) plus other food. Treatment of the citrus product could be done by contractors in Dunedin and Auckland but not in Christchurch, she could not get into the computer system to get the paper work and payment slip done even with the assistance of a more senior officer so that the citrus peel could be sent away

I gave up, even after being seated at a comfortable seat offered by them, as the parking fees for my son who was outside waiting could be astronomical, and allowed them to dispose the citrus peel. I wish I knew the value of the orange peel as no restaurant here can supply the tan pei nyap ( duck in orange peel) I love, I would have waited. I was also worried that the dry heat to sterilise the peel would affect the flavour as the essential oils could be distilled off and you end up with a piece of cardboard.

We were lucky that a distant relative in Hong Kong has two holiday apartments in Xin Hui each with three bedrooms, his son-in-law living in Xin Hui has a car and access to a company 7 seater van so accommodation, food and transport was not a problem. This Xin Hui relative was in contact with our Hai Yan distant relative so phone call were made - mobile phone seem to be everywhere, and one call led to another. I was in contact with Tan Shi Ling, Henry's nephew by email and phone, I did not need his assistance this time but he is an excellent person who could help out any one requiring help.

GPS was not that useful in the villages to find direction, but directions were freely given - everyone was eager to help. Coming from winter in New Zealand it was steamy hot in the villages. An overview on this trip was that the narrow village streets were swept clean; smoking was common but not overbearing; spitting was rare; there were many elderly people retired; there was quite a well made senior club donated by overseas people; there was not much prospect for younger folks to get work and stay in the village; but people were happy. My wife mentioned that some toilets had no doors, but were clean.

The village folks were extremely generous and hospitable, sharing what they had - tea, soft drinks, glutinous balls in sugar, added extra fans to cool us. And genuinely pleased to see us, in return we ran out of red packets but however much or little you gave you knew that it would help the family.

We were surprised by a sumptuous lunch given to us, there were 11 of us and we ate in a house where they spent the whole day cooking for us, huge crabs, roasted goose and chicken, fish, goose blood, lotus root soup, vegetables, etc. Topped off with fruit in season. I close by asking - how can you avoid not giving red packets for such a welcome.

Joe

[chansomvia]

Douglas,

Reading further into your reply you are quite right in that the stream running through the center of Xin Hui is filled in and a major road runs over it. Talking of roads the express way was beautiful, the direct bus ride from Guangzhou took less than two comfortable hours, Kaiping, Juihai, Taicheng also two hours or less. The bullet train Xin Hui to Guangzhou 45 minutes.

There is a tremendous rate of development in Xin Hui, there is a megamart to beat all megamarts being built, I think Douglas that even an annual change will stagger you, let alone eight years

Joe

[douglaslam]

Joe, it is interesting to read your travel tales. I like going back to China often for no other reasons than just doing the tourist things. There is so much to catch up and re-connect with because I left China in the oppressive, terrifying, dim, dark days of Mao's reign in 1956. China is OK if people do as I do by sticking to tourist things.

I,too, learnt a lesson about bring in foodstuff back from China. Two trips ago, Customs seized my prized bags of dried black olives. The reason: the olives were not commercially prepared and packed. The olive halves in fact were bought separately, or homemade, and put in plastic bags. Not good enough. I was about to shove a handful into my mouth so as not to lose the whole lot. The home prepared ones were particularly rich in flavour. We normally steam fish with the olives on top. It is also popular as snack food. To beat the ban, we simply ask the retailer in the market to put the olives in nice clear plastic bags and heat-sealed them.

I vaguely remember how the olives were prepared by my mother and grandmother. They were boiled, sliced into halves by cotton thread, then put to dry in the sun. I can't remember at which stage the flavouring is done. Strangely, it is a popular food supplement in my county Chungshan but not so in Sze Yup. I now call ahead of my return so that my folks in the village have plenty of time to find the best olives. Tyuti1668 would no doubt know how tasty the olives are.

You are right about the march of progress and infrastructure at the rate of knots. I didn't know the bullet trains serve Xin Hui as well. I know a high speed monorail is linking my village/ township with others, and goes to Guangzhou in less than an hours. Harking back to the old days, we had to cross many rivers and streams to get from one town to another. Alternately, we used to travel at night on a flat-bottom barge towed by a tug. It was slow but had the feel of really going places. I miss the slower pace of life.

All these mega-marts, rapid transport, influx of internal migration, and decline of Cantonese and local dialects are destroying the distinct characters of each little township and village.

Douglas

[chansomvia]

Douglas wrote:
"All these mega-marts, rapid transport, influx of internal migration, and decline of Cantonese and local dialects are destroying the distinct characters of each little township and village."

Could not agree with you more, my parents buildings in their separate villages will remain standing as it is built of solid rocks: one has been abandoned as the distant relative living there has moved out to a better place of his own, the house cannot be rented out as the population of the village is dwindling due to the old folks passing on and the young generation have to move on to earn a living and enjoy the bright lights. A squat toilets, wood fired stoves to cook food and heat water, bathing from a water container with water drawn from a spring, no airconditioning, this life-style cannot retain the enterprising energetic new generation.

A second longer trip is planned, age is catching up with us as well as the ones in the villages so it has to be done soon. Also the saga of the confiscated Xin Hui orange peels must be pursued. Whilst there is a decline in the character of the little townships and villages it has been replaced by some positive behaviour very different to what I experienced as a poor batchelor in Hong Kong in the early 60's who could only speak Hoisanwa.

We found that youngsters willingly gave up their seats for us in the buses, tipping was not expected and sometimes refused, portions of food served was very large, hygiene must have been good as I have a sensitive stomach prone to bouts of problems when I travel, traffic planning must have been good as rarely were we stuck in traffic or waited long for a bus, we risked our lives crossing the roads though but there seems to be some road protocol as we rarely hear of fatal accidents. Mandarin was spoken everywhere, Cantonese is dying out and Hoisanwa is nearly extinct - but - we never experienced the haughty attitude shown to us in the 60's when you could not speak Hongkongnese in Hong Kong then.

Thanks Douglas for your input, I hope my ramblings can warn people to avoid some of the strife I had, also to let them know that there are many things they can enjoy, both physically and mentally. I also hope that this will encourage visits to the villages and put to rest the question of having to hand out red packets and lug presents to all relatives, also to pay for visits to grave sites etc, there is no compulsion to do these things unless one wants to do it.
Joe

[douglaslam]

Joe, very interesting observations you have made. Yes, the villagers are leaving the villages in droves. You'll remember from my travelogue; I mentioned that many empty houses are left to rot. Only romantic fools like me return year after year.

I'd be quite happy going back to a village with few creature comforts as I did in the 1970s. I never slept on a bed with a mattress, not in China, not in Hong Kong, not until my arrival in Sydney. It was always a hard bed. I'd be happy to swap the mattress for planks. In every kitchen there was an all-purpose big wok. The big woks are no more. It is the electric rice cookers, and LNG stoves instead of dried leaves, straw, and dead wood. Spring water is not relied on because of contamination of the water table. How different things are now.

Yes, I do get gestures of courtesy on public transport in China. It is a good feeling. I don't consider myself feeble, or unsure of foot. Crossing the road is quite an art, just call the other side bluffing. Motorists are desensitised by the constant blasting of the car horns. I don't see signs of road rage or the one finger salute because someone toots his car horn.

I travel reasonably light, usually less than 15 kg in luggage. I don't take gifts, but I do give cash to those who are close, and I do host a small dinner party every time.

My experiences thus far are mostly positive. I'll keep on going back as long as I am able to do so.

Douglas