[Hong Kong Story] Hong Kong's century-old charity organization witnessed the journey of "fallen leaves back to the roots" of the expatriates
[Explanation] The winding path is secluded and surrounded by greenery. The Donghua Yizhuang, located at Dakouhuan, the western end of Hong Kong Island, was built in 1899 and has a history of more than a century.
It has witnessed the tragic history of Hong Kong using its shipping advantages to provide burial services of origin for Chinese people around the world over the past century.
"Returning to the roots of fallen leaves" is the most sincere hope of the Chinese who traveled across the oceans and made a living in their early years.
It is this unsophisticated desire to return to the homeland that has enabled the Hong Kong-based charity organization of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals to gradually develop into a central hub for the burial of origin for Chinese in the world, and it also connects China with the world.
In the Archives, History and Culture Office of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, the reporter met Shi Xiuying. As the head of the office, she has been deeply involved in historical research for many years and is familiar with the stories behind every archive and cultural relics stored here.
[Concurrent] Shi Xiuying, Director of the Archives and History and Culture Office of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals
These two cultural relics came from Donghua Yizhuang. Actually, I don’t know when.
Once these two were both of us looking for bones to reproduce back to Hong Kong.
These bones were packed in foreign countries and placed in a box. Some used to be in the form of rattan baskets, and some were in the form of iron boxes.
So we brought it here from Yizhuang as a witness to the cultural relics of the original burial history.
[Explanation] Shi Xiuying introduced that according to relevant research, the tradition of overseas Chinese returning to their hometowns for burial took shape around the middle of the 19th century.
After 1850, ocean-going ferries sailing from all over the world to Hong Kong contained countless coffins of Chinese who died in foreign countries.
One of the early examples is the Sanyi General Assembly Hall in the United States, which was established in 1850. It was composed of expatriates from Nanhai, Panyu and Shunde, and was responsible for coffin transportation and burial in the hometown of overseas Chinese.
Several pages of letters in the archive record this dusty history.
[Concurrent] Shi Xiuying, Director of the Archives and History and Culture Office of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals
This letter was written to Donghua by a club in San Francisco (San Francisco, USA) in 1934.
At that time, because of so many letters, we knew that there were actually more letters in the United States, because San Francisco was the first city to pan for gold. It panned for gold in January 1848, so the Chinese began to go. NS.
In fact, most of this letter is like this, it will tell us that they have cleaned up the bones.
Then he will take what boat, and then he will tell us the number.
The remains have 474 (tools), and then there are 80 boxes, because when it was transported back, it went to Kaiping or Taishan, so this route went like this.
There are all addresses, destinations, names, and (shipping) times.
[Explanation] So far, a global transportation network has gradually been drawn up.
As one of the largest Chinese charity organizations in Hong Kong at the time, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals used its business and social network to connect the mainland and overseas to return tens of thousands of Chinese stranded overseas to their homeland, which also expanded the mainland of China to a certain extent. The transportation channels in China have made the connections and cooperation between chambers of commerce, overseas Chinese associations, public offices and other institutions closer.
Nowadays, many of the correspondence books and records of entering and leaving the Yizhuang have been damaged. After professional restoration, they have been restored to their original appearance, revealing to the world the huge scale of shipping in Hong Kong at that time and the struggling course of the ancient Chinese.
[Concurrent] Shi Xiuying, Director of the Archives and History and Culture Office of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals
In fact, there are both in North America and South America, and both in Peru in South America.
It turns out that there is a mine in Peru that you haven’t heard of. It’s called Guano Mine. There are many small finches in Peru. Their guano can be used as paint. So some people went to Peru to work, so we know that at that time around the world. In addition to the gold panning, for example, what to do in Cuba?
Cuba is a sugarcane plantation, so in fact, in our letters, many are from North America, South America, and then in many Central Americas, all over the world, Southeast Asia has many, and Australia has many.
[Explanation] From the bird droppings mine in Peru to the sugar cane plantations in Cuba, from the tea fields in Myanmar to the gold mines in Australia, the page-by-page archives reproduce the footprints of the Chinese expatriates who traveled across the oceans and pioneered entrepreneurship, and also laid out the early years. Hong Kong Chinese charity organizations have an irreplaceable and evocative history in communicating China and foreign countries and connecting things with each other.
Reporter Fan Siyi, Luo Siyu and Liang Yuan from Hong Kong
Editor in charge: [Tang Weijie]