Yong Chun is popular for its Mandarin oranges that we buy for the Lunar New Year. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Yong Chun martial arts though many friends mistake it so.
I spent 13 days between September/October in 2002 traveling in China with my parents- we went to Guangzhou (广洲）， Swatow (汕头）， Hainan (海南）, Teochew (潮洲), and Xiamen (厦门）. The tour group (which actually comprised the 3 of us and another elderly couple (a 80 year old chinese man who used to run a tailoring shop in Peoples' Park as well as his 69 year old wife) ended its itinerary in Xiamen.
The 3 of us then proceeded to YongChun. Dad's cousin, Gart Boh (刘乐模) fetched us for the 2 hour drive into the 'village'. The trip was interesting for me as I retraced Dad's journey to Singapore. It is meaningful as I discovered many aspects our our ancestry including finding our 'family book' or record of our genealogy (家谱).
The ancestral home was still there then. We visited but could not stay as the basic amenities were still lacking too :-p. Gart Boh put us up in the YongChun Hotel - one of the better ones there. By the time we visited, many overseas Chinese had invested in the development of the county. A Malaysian Chinese who was from YongChun built a massive convention and exhibition center that was largely underutilized except by migrants from the inner cities peddling their souvenirs as well as food.
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| The front of the Grand-Uncle's home. Taiwanese investors had been buying up land to develop into industrial estates. Our ancestral tombs were moved several times to make way for this onslaught. Two years ago, Dad was asked to sign off his claim to some land. We did not pursue details as it is highly unlikely that we would have any interest in it. |
The roads around the town of the village are well paved and there were even internet/video game parlors (网吧）。 People from the village are well known building artisans, they also work in coal mines and grow the popular ponkan (mandarin oranges).
Dad at 6
I made copies of it :p for fear that we might lose it. Here it is :
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| Great-grandfather (seated in the front) with Great-grandmother to his right. Dad is standing next to him while Eldest aunt is in front of her. Our Grandparents are standing directly behind them. The front porch where this photograph was taken was still standing when I visited. The other grand aunts and uncles - some of them were octogenarians. The youngest grand-uncle is on the extreme right. He is 85 this year. |
Dad was obviously quite a mischievous child - a close-up of him shows him making a face at the photographer.Family Tree Book
The next thing we discovered was the family tree book or (家谱). Though the records were disrupted for some reason, it was quite emotional to read Dad's name in the list. It was also through this book that Dad found out by accident that his biological mother had passed away when he was very young. Grandfather had married thrice - the second wife passed away too without bearing him any offspring whilst Dad was the only child from the first wife. The Grandmother we knew while growing up bore him 10 children - 5 boys and 5 girls.
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| A photocopy of the family tree record book. |
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| The record of Grandfather's birth and marriage. Dad's birth was also recorded on the right of the page. |
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| Dad's name as registered in the book. Translated as Son, Eldest Gart Huan. |
During our stay, we were treated to dinner every night by different groups of relatives. The food was familiar fare - those that we were brought up on. Breakfast at the hotel was plain porridge with pickles and fritters. Lunches were also fairly delicious home-cooked style food. Dinners were more deliberate affairs as liquor was always involved with many rounds of toasts. As visitors, we were expected to drink - a useful phrase 随意 - according to your means - was my way of getting out of the binges.
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| From left - (Youngest Grand-Aunt-in-law, Mum, Dad, Youngest Grand-Uncle, a close childhood friend of Dad, Grand-Uncle's daughter). Standing - Son of Grand-Uncle's eldest son, myself, Gart Boh who drove us from Xiaman and his third brother. |
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| Relaxing in the hall of Dad's birthplace after visitations at various places in the village. Mum watching the youngest son of Grand-Uncle serving tea - a common feature of households in the south of China. Dad chatting with Grand-Uncle. |
Over the years, we knew Dad had sent money back to either help in building bridges or repairing the 'old home' (老屋）。 One such construction was the ancestral home or (祖屋）。 Dad showed me the engraving that acknowledged his contribution, amongst the thousands of overseas Chinese who helped to erect the building that houses the ancestors of the village.
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| Dad visiting the ancestral 'home' Notice the fine carvings and exquisite roofing of the building. Apparently the structure is designed not to retain water nor falling leaves. Neat ! |
When I saw many of our relatives - one thing struck me - there are some uncanny similarities in our physical features - the sharper nose, the more thicker eyebrows, and the more prominent facial features. Gart Boh is my age - he is my 'Uncle' and has 3 daughters and one son - he obviously tried to ensure a male lineage :-) - I just recently chatted with him on msn - his eldest daughter studied English in Murdoch University and has settled there. His family has also migrated to Melbourne too. One other daughter married someone from Inner Mongolia. He had asked me when I visited in 2002 to 'adopt' her. When he brought it up recently, I joked that if she had come to Singapore - he would not be visiting Inner Mongolia (as he was doing so) as guests of his in-laws.
During my visit, I could not help feeling tickled that I have so many cousins who were about the same age as, or younger than my nephews and nieces. One of the girls recently emailed me in her QQ account. She is all grown up and working as a clerk in the local train station.
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| Photo taken with 'cousins' during the farewell dinner. The girl seated to my left shares many features - in fact I thought she looks like Angelina, my eldest niece. |
To be continued....(getting some more photos scanned - and uploading them as I recall the anecdotes)
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