Chinanews.com, Jiangmen, April 18th. Title: Traveling and returning home, a century of overseas Chinese in Jiangmen, Guangdong
China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen
The Wuyi Overseas Chinese Plaza in Jiangmen, Guangdong, across the street are clusters of brand-new commercial settlements, and the development avenue that traverses it is fascinated by a row of neatly planted palm plants.
It is located in the business core area of Jiangmen, the hometown of overseas Chinese. It is difficult for people to associate it with the grand historical narrative full of joys and sorrows. The Wuyi Overseas Chinese Museum in the corner of the square tells the world the past of the hometown of overseas Chinese, and even the country’s emergence from poverty The magnificent picture scrolling step by step in the middle.
Visitors are reading the schedule of cruise ships used by immigrants from their homes on display in the museum.
Photo by Wang Jun
——Going far away to make a living
Jiangmen, also known as Wuyi, is known as "China's No. 1 Hometown of Overseas Chinese", and is one of the earliest areas in Guangdong and even China to emigrate overseas.
The city has a population of 4.2 million. There are nearly 4 million overseas Chinese and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan from Jiangmen. They are distributed in 107 countries and regions on five continents in the world.
Back in time more than 100 years ago, the museum’s real-world simulation reproduced the scene of the early overseas Chinese crossing the ocean by boat: the dim and narrow room of the cabin was crowded with sleepy immigrants; in the eyes of the ship owner, they even "connected people." Neither is", calling it a very discriminatory "piggy".
At the other end of the picture, at sunset, ships approaching Jiangmen City, built on the water, where silk and hardware gather; people in the town line up in front of the silver building, waiting to pick up silver letters from their relatives overseas.
The picture shows the early Chinese immigration passport displayed at the Overseas Chinese Museum in Wuyi, Jiangmen.
Photo by Wang Jun
"Silver letter" is the collective term for letters and remittances sent by overseas Chinese to domestic families of overseas Chinese. In Hokkien, "letter" is pronounced as "batch", so "yin letter" is called "batch of overseas Chinese" in Fujian and Chaoshan areas.
Overseas Chinese batches are a concentrated expression of the tenacious hard work and deep affection of the homeland of overseas Chinese.
In 2013, China's "Overseas Chinese Approval Archives-Overseas Chinese Banking Letters" was included in the Memory of the World Heritage List by UNESCO.
Of the 160,000 overseas Chinese approvals, nearly 50,000 came from Jiangmen.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the impoverished people of Wuyi were forced to make a living and went to Southeast Asia and America to make a living.
The museum exhibits one of the earliest Chinese passports from the eighth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1882).
The passport describes the image of its owner as "five feet six and a half inches tall, with a purple face."
Commentator Yu Libing said that in the era when ordinary people did not have passports, farmers in Jiangmen had already left the country. On the one hand, it explained the large number of people living in the hometown of overseas Chinese. Struggling hard.
The picture shows the overseas recruitment notice posted for early immigrants.
The commentator said that the content is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and many laborers were deceived and even destroyed their families.
Photo by Wang Jun
——Support the motherland's war of resistance and show its talents in distressed areas
Sun Yat-sen once said that overseas Chinese are the mother of the revolution.
The history of blood and tears and struggles of the overseas Chinese in Wuyi are exactly the mental journey of the vast overseas Chinese in pursuit of national prosperity and national independence, actively participating in the construction of New China, and building Sangzi together in modern times.
Speaking of the "Flying Tigers" during the Anti-Japanese War, the first impression of most people may be General Chennault. Few people know that 95% of the more than 2,600 "Flying Tigers" members are American Chinese, and most of them are Jiangmen Chinese. Descendants.
Mashoji, an overseas Canadian from Taishan, is one of them. He has flown the "Hump Route" 337 times.
2020 coincides with the 75th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. A reporter from Chinanews.com has accompanied the delegation to Taishan City, Jiangmen to find the mark of the War of Resistance against overseas Chinese.
Chen Canpei, dean of the American Flying Tigers Research Institute, told reporters that the people of Taishan had a record of making a living in a foreign country 240 years ago, and there were more than 1 million overseas Chinese when the Anti-Japanese War broke out.
At the beginning of recruitment, many descendants of overseas Chinese registered one after another upon hearing the news.
Feihuting has also become an off-campus education base for teenagers in Taishan, the "Hometown of Overseas Chinese Aviation".
Overseas Chinese who supported the motherland's resistance to Japan and rescued compatriots who had suffered in the war, have participated in the national salvation movement in different ways.
Although Zheng Chaojiong, an overseas Chinese in Jiangmen, has no wealth, he has the ambition to join the national disaster.
His elderly father died at the gun of the Japanese invaders, but he was unable to return to his hometown to go to the funeral because he was in Nanyang.
Zheng Chaojiong wiped away his tears, turning grief into strength.
Since 1937, with the assistance and cooperation of the British Malaya (now Malaysia) relief organization, Zheng Chaojiong has sold melon seeds for charity in various ports in North Borneo and Sarawak to raise funds; later he traveled across the vast South China Sea to Singapore , And then moved to Peninsular Malaysia.
In just five years, he alone raised up to 180,000 yuan (local currency) for charity, and gave all the money to the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Relief Association chaired by Mr. Tan Kah Kee.
Mei Weiqiang, an overseas Chinese historical research scholar in Wuyi, said that overseas Chinese all over the world went to the national disaster together. This is an epic history.
The picture shows a photo of early Chinese immigrants displayed at the Overseas Chinese Museum in Wuyi, Jiangmen.
The immigrant was deceived into a sugarcane plantation in South America and was wearing fetters at work.
Photo by Wang Jun
——Seek a firm return for development
Overseas Chinese in Wuyi survived in the cracks of their country of residence. With their indomitable struggle and the wisdom to dare to try, many people have achieved outstanding achievements.
Under the premise of guaranteeing the expenses of a large family, these wealthy overseas Chinese have vigorously promoted the economic prosperity of the country in which they live; they are enthusiastic about public welfare, and they have made great contributions to the development of their hometown.
With the establishment of New China, Jiangmen was established and prospered by overseas Chinese.
The love of overseas Chinese in Wuyi for their motherland and their hometown is not only reflected in times of crisis, but also in ordinary life.
Back then, overseas Chinese who "have money to send back" supported their families and supported local construction. Overseas remittances became the main economic pillar on which the overseas Chinese depended for their livelihoods, and they were also an important source of the economy in the hometown of overseas Chinese.
After the reform and opening up, overseas Chinese took the lead in returning home to invest in response to national policies.
According to statistics, overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao enterprises account for about 70% of the total number of foreign-funded enterprises in China, and their investment accounts for more than 60% of the total amount of foreign capital actually utilized in China.
Overseas Chinese not only bring capital, but also technology, management experience, and a global vision. This has greatly promoted China's participation in world market competition and the process of economic globalization.
In November 2019, Jiangmen City hosted the first Overseas Chinese Cultural Exchange and Cooperation and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Youth Cultural and Creative Development Conference, which attracted more than 1,000 representatives of overseas Chinese and Hong Kong and Macao youths at home and abroad. Since then, Jiangmen has officially launched the construction of overseas Chinese cultural exchanges and cooperation. Important platform.
Today, the overseas Chinese in Jiangmen are closer and closer to the motherland and hometown. Many of them have returned to their ancestral homes and participated in the construction of the “Belt and Road” and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
After completing his studies in Australia, Hong Kong, and the United States, Lei Huozheng, chairman of Jinqiao Aluminum Profile Factory Co., Ltd., was influenced by his father and finally chose to return to Taishan, Jiangmen to grow his business.
"Whether it is economic and trade exchanges or cultural exchanges, Jiangmen's gathering of overseas Chinese, attracting overseas Chinese capital, borrowing overseas Chinese wisdom, and making great efforts to make overseas Chinese have made Jiangmen overseas Chinese feel home here." Lei Huozheng hopes, Jiangmen people at home and abroad Work together and explore to help our hometown actively integrate into the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and make greater achievements.
Visitors are reading the passports of early Chinese immigrants displayed in the museum.
Photo by Wang Jun
On the first floor of the museum, 7 boxes of different sizes and styles are neatly arranged.
They fade in different shades and are full of traces of the vicissitudes of life.
The locals call it Jinshan Boxes. Overseas Chinese used to return home to fill these accompanying boxes with more and more sinking, and the more they can reflect the achievements of their hard work outside.
Nowadays, the wanderers have returned to the battle with light clothing. They have shifted the focus of their career development to the Greater Bay Area. What is overflowing is no longer luggage, but humble learning heart and sincere family and country feelings.
Yu Libing said that as the historical and cultural business card of Jiangmen, the Wuyi Overseas Chinese Museum showed visitors a legendary story of "walking far away and serving the country". This is the root of overseas Chinese and a mirror of modern Chinese history. (Finish)