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Post by helen on Mar 30, 2013 2:30:53 GMT -5
Second Burial: New Zealand Chinese Experience 1883 and 1902 My New publication now for sale ISBN 978-0-473-24298-5 The Cantonese custom of secondary burial, the idea of exhuming the dead, cleaning the bones, and then burying them again, helps to explain why so many (overseas) Chinese were not only willing to exhume their dead but also to clean the bones and put them in containers for shipment back to China. * Reburial: Exhuming the Dead and Returning Them to China www.cinarc.org/Death-2.html#anchor_14There were two periods of mass exhumation of Chinese in New Zealand, organised for the Panyu people, by the Dunedin Sew Hoy family. In 1883, 286 Chinese from the South Island were repatriated on the Hoi How. And in 1902, 499 were aboard the ill fated Ventnor when it sank 10 miles off the Hokianga Heads. This time Panyu men from both the South Island and the North Island were included, as well as eleven Wellington men from the Jung Seng county of China.
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Post by helen on Mar 30, 2013 5:21:28 GMT -5
Second Burial - PDF with description Attachments:
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Post by douglaslam on Apr 1, 2013 5:12:43 GMT -5
Helen, the cinarc.org is quite something. It uses simplified characters, which I detest. I wonder who are the people behind it.
Secondary burial as it is called here is still practised in my part of China. You may recall my village brother and travel companion Ma Gor is in the business of exhumation, cleaning the bones, and burying them again. I am curious to know how it is done. On my next visit, I might join him and his crew for some firsthand experience if he had a job order. I do vaguely recall that I might have seen one done when I was very little. I am just not sure it was my imagination or for real.
Are you still on track to go to China again with Lap Chi in November? Douglas
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Post by helen on Apr 2, 2013 3:03:24 GMT -5
Hi Douglas - How are you? good to hear from you. How was Easter? working? I have had some communication with an ex professor from Macau - who has an interest in this subject.
His study was in the graveyards of Macau, where he followed funerals, burial and reburial, the laws about handling and shipping human remains, dealing with spirits, paper sacrifices and the like.
Interesting.
Yes November is still on - have you worked out what dates you will be going? Once you have that, then I'll make plans. There's another Kiwi from Christchurch who may be keen - Joe.
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Post by chansomvia on Apr 3, 2013 4:09:02 GMT -5
Hi Helen,
We just concluded the New Zealand Chinese Association Easter tournament in Christchurch. You can see the activities on Facebook, what a change with the group of young Kiwi Chinese web-site developers. Worth a look as you can see how the Chinese youngsters have enjoyed themselves and try to keep the tradition alive, even when nearly all this new generation are born in New Zealand.
Some are interested in joining the Annual Winter Camp in China to visit their ancestral homes; and to see what life in China was during the time their parents left. The cities in present day China is more capitalistic than the Western world, has more to offer in terms of variety of things, some of the most modern facilities, tourists from China get bored easily when they travel here.
I have a 50th wedding anniversary on December 12th in Malacca Malaysia, from there it is a short hop to Shenzen, Macau, Guangzhou, or Hong Kong, which can access Taisan, Zhuhai, or Xin Hui easily.
As long as it allows me to attend the Wedding Anniversary in Malaysia it is not a problem to go in late November, or after the Wedding Anniversary (I was the best man) to any of the main entry points in China, I would however like to spend more time in Haiyan. On another matter I need to enlist the assistance of my wife who speaks and reads Mandarin fluently ... I was amazed at the lack of spoken Cantonese and Taishanese in Kwangtung and had to revert to my pidgin Mandarin.
How did Simon enjoy his adventures in South-east Asia? I am sure he got along easily in English. Did he write a blog or posted any article on his travel? I just finished a two weeks driving holiday in both the North and South Island with three widely traveled Malaysian girls, we met spectacular weather. It is getting very expensive having a holiday in New Zealand, we could travel two months or longer in China for what we spent here in spite of staying at friends houses.
Planning is half the fun of travel.
Joe
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Post by douglaslam on Apr 3, 2013 5:28:38 GMT -5
Helen, I worked throughout Easter . With the holiday penalty rates, the top-up goes a long way in defraying the $1,700 (Ouch!!) I paid to replace our gas hot water heater. Last night I received a phone call from a stranger. He invited me to his family gathering, and wanted to know from me anything about his paternal grandmother side of his family. It is to do with this house reply 112, my cousin's home. Cousin's grandfather's sister was the stranger's grandmother. Confused? siyigenealogy.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=shared&action=display&thread=1181&page=8 It is a long stretch of the imagination to say the caller and me are related. I met his father, now 85 back in the 1960s, and I remember his name. The father came out to Sydney when he was just a few years old. Because their family name Mar, I was fairly sure his father was from Sa Chung , Chungshan county. The father remembers it. Ma / Mar is also our friend Carlos' family from Tong Gum. Tong Gum is an offshoot of Sa Chung. Anyway after a long conversation, and later came emails with photos, family tree and an official invitation. I volunteered to accompany them to China to seek out their ancestral village, and possibly family home. They jumped at the chance. Looks like I am going to have a party and really busy in China come November. It would be great if we could meet up, together with Joe, and Carlos in China. Perhaps Fay Chee might find time to join us and make it a big happening. Tomorrow, we are meeting for lunch at the same restaurant we had our first and best crab dish, remember? Father and son wanted to know more from me. Looks like I am building up a reputation of sorts, and people are seeking me out. Douglas
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Post by helen on Apr 4, 2013 1:21:37 GMT -5
Hi Joe - Heard that the Easter tournament went well. I'll see if I can find the facebook page. Let's see when Douglas is going to China in November. Hopefully the dates will be good for all of us.
Simon is working as an online reporter for TV3 now - loves the job as every day is a different one. Any breaking news, contact tv3. He loved his time away but not working a whole year was an experience.
The youth of today must be the same as the youth of yester year - still have roots back home.
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Post by helen on Apr 4, 2013 1:24:32 GMT -5
Hi Douglas - good to see a lot of money was made over Easter - albeit - all put to good news.
It's good to help people find their roots - just like the guy we took back to China last November. He found his Grandfather and Grandmother's 3 villages, and met some new found relatives.
I hope your strangers turn out to be new rellies.
Have you any dates in mind for your November foray? Fay Chee? any ideas?
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Post by FayChee on Apr 4, 2013 8:03:02 GMT -5
Hi Helen and Douglas!
I just may meet up with you all in November! Douglas's Adventures really inspire reader's to visit their Ancestral homes before it is too late and made into a factory. I continue to re-read his postings and still get 'teary-eyed' at my dad's home.
Although I am disappointed that I will not make the trip this month, maybe it is fate saying that I need to get my body in excellent travel form first.
Right now, I am preparing for the best Ching Ming my dad ever had! There are alot of YouTube videos and I am getting good pointers.....making a list (and checking it twice), learning the correct use of those yellow papers, burning of things, foods to take, how to bow correctly!
The cemetery historian told me that bone cleaning was done up until the time that boat sank with the bones. A book about the Evergreens Cemetery has the following paragraphs: "Five or six years after a burial, tents and pots of boiling water were set up under a tent near the grave, the remains were disinterred and professional bone cleaners got to work. The bones were then packed up in zinc boxes and shipped by rail to San Francisco and from there by ship to China. The process continued for decades until a ship carrying bones was torpedoed in the Pacific during World War II. The Japanese would capture the ships and ransack the boxes for the zinc. When that happened, the shipments stopped. After the war further shipment of bones was cut off by the Communist government. Boxes containing the remains of more than two hundred Chinese-Americans were stored in the Evergreens' receiving vault for almost forty years. When the rent checks stopped appearing in 1987, Evergreens President initiated negotiations with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association that led to an agreement to return all remains that could be identified to China, and to inter the others at the Evergreens."
Fay Chee
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Post by helen on Apr 5, 2013 4:01:55 GMT -5
Hi Fay Chee - Just waiting for the dates from Douglas - then we can plan. Our family is celebrating (is that the correct word?) Ching Ming here in Auckland tomorrow, Saturday.
I'm going to add your words on my facebook - about the San Francisco experience. Not a good story is it, about the boats being torpedoes. Has any one recorded the stories from that era?
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Post by douglaslam on Apr 5, 2013 5:09:54 GMT -5
Dear all, good to hear everyone is firing up to go. My leave commences on Nov.6, I have five weeks. There is plenty of time to go anywhere our fancy takes us.
Fay Chee, if you do make the trip, it is going to be the biggest thing ever happened in Chao Yang. There will be visitors from Australia, New Zealand, and if Carlos is joining us from Peru, all the better. Let's make you and Lew's homecoming a grand occasion, the stuff of legends. My village brothers will be keen to come for the occasion too. Let's party ! Douglas
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Post by helen on Apr 5, 2013 5:36:07 GMT -5
November the 6 - now we have a date. maybe we need to start another thread - to see who is going to come - and where we are going.
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Post by FayChee on Apr 5, 2013 6:09:19 GMT -5
Hi Helen, The words I quoted came directly from the book "Green Oasis in Brooklyn: The Evergreens Cemetery 1849-2008" by John Rousmaniere." I don't know if anyone has recorded any stories from that era, but maybe the Chinese Museum in Chinatown (called MOCA) has done something on it.
You can email them about their collections:
"Hailed by the Smithsonian Magazine as "a cultural rescue mission to save a little-known immigrant heritage," MOCA’s collections document an immigrant community that arrived in the Americas with few possessions. It has grown to include more contemporary items that document the changing profile of Chinese America. After 33 years of collecting artifacts, photographs, oral histories, and archival & library materials, MOCA’s archives and collections represent an important national assemblage of materials documenting Chinese life in America. .........To access MOCA's collections, donate an item, or apply for intern/volunteer opportunities, please contact collections@mocanyc.org."
Douglas, I will keep that date in mind and hopefully my brother and I can have that long awaited Village homecoming!
Fay Chee
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Post by helen on Apr 5, 2013 15:30:36 GMT -5
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Post by helen on Apr 6, 2013 15:03:16 GMT -5
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