Text, photo/Yangcheng Evening News reporter Ant Luya correspondent Wu Qinglian
Home and country feelings send rulers. Overseas Chinese approval, also known as Fan Batch and Silver Letter, is a certificate of "silver" or "silver letter" sent back to their hometown by overseas Chinese through non-governmental channels and financial and postal agencies. On October 13, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping mentioned during his inspection of the Shantou Overseas Chinese Cultural Relics Museum that the "Overseas Chinese Batch" records the difficult entrepreneurial history and strong feelings of home and country of the older generation of overseas Chinese, and is also an important embodiment of the Chinese nation's credibility and commitment.
Unveiling scene
As the largest port in eastern Guangdong before the opening of Shantou, Zhanglin Ancient Port is the figurative carrier for inheriting the "red-headed ship spirit" of Chaoshan and pinning the feelings of the vast number of overseas Chinese. On the morning of January 20, Dongli Town, Chenghai District, Shantou City, held the unveiling ceremony of the first town-level overseas Chinese approval hall in Chaoshan area- Yongdinglou Overseas Chinese Approval Exhibition Hall, which added another thick ink to Shantou's cohesion of overseas Chinese, gathering overseas Chinese strength, gathering overseas Chinese wisdom, and doing a good job in the "overseas Chinese" article in the new era.
Yongding Building Exhibition Hall
Gugang Yongding Building gorgeous transformation of overseas Chinese exhibition hall
Located in Chenghai, Shantou, Zhanglin Ancient Port was once the main port of foreign trade in eastern Guangdong, and was the "place of the confluence of the ocean" and "the ruins of the intersection of the river and the sea". In the last century, thousands of tide people set off from Zhanglin Port on red-headed boats, crossed the ocean to the world, and through a letter of sealing overseas Chinese, they passed on the money, silver and blood and tears carried by sweat to the other side of the ocean. Therefore, for many overseas Chinese and the second generation of overseas Chinese, it is of great significance that the overseas Chinese exhibition hall is located here.
According to Chen Ye, curator of the Yongding Building Overseas Chinese Exhibition Hall, Yongding Building, also known as Guanhai Building, is said to have been a Qing Dynasty building that was used for both warehouse and navigation markers, and was also a place for business negotiations and boatmen's leisure at that time, and also did a bookstore, witnessing the prosperity and vicissitudes of Zhanglin Ancient Port. After 7 months of renovation, Yongding Building is now transformed into an exhibition hall for overseas Chinese.
The event awarded books to 12 donors
It is reported that the museum has collected 1016 pieces of overseas Chinese cultural relics, selected more than 300 special exhibits to be exhibited in the museum, and opened 6 exhibition halls in the exhibition hall, such as "Overseas Chinese Batch Collection", "Fanpan Tangshan", "Overseas Chinese Approval Art Literature", "Yaoyuanhui Road", "Homeland Feelings" and "Zhangdong Overseas Chinese Batch". Next, it will be open to the public at regular intervals every week.
Exhibits in the museum
On the day of the event, in addition to the invited guests, many villagers also spontaneously came to the scene to visit. The reporter saw in the museum that not only two old people with gray sideburns came on crutches, but also curious children who were seriously watching the exhibition. In the Overseas Chinese Collection Hall, Uncle Jiang, who is more than seventy years old, looked at the overseas Chinese and couldn't help but burst into tears, he told reporters that after learning that the Yongding Building was going to be changed into the Overseas Chinese Criticism Hall, he was looking forward to it, and today the unveiling was held, and he specially brought his daughter and grandson to come with them, so that they could also feel this history. "There are two generations of elders in our family who have traveled thousands of miles away from home because of their lives, which is very difficult, and we should remember the difficult entrepreneurial history of the older generation of overseas Chinese, and we must also tell these stories to our children and grandchildren." Uncle Jiang said excitedly.
Uncle Jiang, who is more than seventy years old, was in tears when he visited the exhibition
At present, Shantou is unswervingly doing a good job in the articles of "overseas Chinese" in the new era, telling the story of "overseas Chinese" well and giving full play to the resources of overseas Chinese is also an important starting point for Shantou to deepen reform and opening up. Chen Sizhong, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Chenghai District of Shantou City and secretary of the Dongli Town CPC Committee, said at the event that the opening of the YongdingLou Overseas Chinese Exhibition Hall has provided an important carrier for us to witness the development process of Sino-foreign economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people exchanges, as well as the vivid practice of the vast number of overseas Chinese compatriots in seeking survival, seeking development, and building a homeland.
Early visit to the museum: 6 exhibition areas have many highlights
Overseas Chinese have a short paper and a long family and country. Nowadays, although the overseas Chinese have withdrawn from the stage of history, as a witness to the arduous pioneering of overseas Chinese, the love of relatives and friends, the benefit of Sangzi and the opening up of local overseas Chinese to the outside world, economic and trade exchanges, and cultural exchanges, it is an important microcosm of social changes, containing unique cultural connotations and rich historical value.
Visitors watch the exhibition carefully
The reporter visited the museum and found that there are not only overseas Chinese approvals in the museum such as water visitor approval, happy event approval, and peace approval, but also old shadows and old things related to overseas Chinese approval industry such as piglet money, overseas Chinese approval bureau signboard, thousand-character document printing rack, and "three treasures of approval feet", and there is no shortage of old shadows and old things related to overseas Chinese approval industry, such as telling the story of overseas Chinese collars through graphic forms, overseas Chinese approval roads, etc.
Overseas Chinese in the museum
Among them, it is worth mentioning that the treasure of the overseas Chinese approval hall is the plaque of the Chaoshan Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau.
Zhang Meisheng introduced the Chaoshan Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau plaque
"This is currently the only signboard of the Chaoshan Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau in China, which is of irreplaceable significance for the study of overseas Chinese approval archives." According to Zhang Meisheng, an expert in the identification of civil archives documents at the Guangdong Provincial Archives and a member of the curatorial team, the plaque inscribed "Yifa Xiang Approval Bureau" was originally located in Rongcheng District, Jieyang City, and the specific date of existence of the batch bureau is unknown, but from one of the 1948 reply letters it received and sent shows that the batch bureau was still in operation in the 1740s. In addition, according to relevant information, the batch bureau was operated by serial numbers with the "Xinhe Batch Bureau" at No. 4 Datong Street in Shantou at that time, which also reflected the real linkage of overseas Chinese in Chaoshan area at that time.
The reporter also noticed a unique and special genre of overseas Chinese criticism - dialect song book body criticism. This is in 1951, the Thai overseas Chinese Huang Fuxian wrote a letter to his newlywed wife under the pen name "Yinghua", read carefully, the content of the song book has flesh and blood, vividly expressing the author's thoughts and feelings, and the traditional song book culture of Chaoshan has also been reflected and inherited in it.
Dialect song book style criticism
Not only that, but there is also a "longest overseas Chinese batch" on display in the museum. Zhang Meisheng told reporters: "The internal letter of this batch is up to 1.5 meters long, which is the longest overseas Chinese batch in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty in China. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, the overseas Chinese Bingsi encountered difficulties and obstacles on the way to the destination to collect the bills on the steamer in Thailand, so he told in detail in his letter the history of his blood and tears in Nanyang. ”
The sentence in the letter, "Poor and clean, better than rich and turbid", made Zhang Meisheng feel very emotional, he believed that it was not easy for overseas Chinese to make a living abroad, but they still did not forget to teach their descendants: No matter whether they are noble or lowly, the most important thing to be a person is to be innocent. The honest education of these ancestors to future generations is of far-reaching significance, and it still has a warning effect on the contemporary era.
Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Editor-in-charge | Huang Lei