Fuzhou Evening News reporter Weng Yumin
After the Fuzhou Evening News's report "In Order to Find the Hometown Voice, Chinese Doctoral Guides Say Fuzhou Nursery Rhymes" was published, in the past few days, the reporter has received feedback from many enthusiastic readers. Someone wanted to send a set of Fuzhou nursery rhymes to DR.KENNY to help him understand more about the hometown tone; someone provided a long-standing evidence of Xie's origin, hoping that DR.KENNY could find new clues to the hometown.
Meanwhile, DR. KENNY also started with pineer church, where his ancestors had stayed at that time, to explore the experiences of his ancestors. Although only a few pieces of information were found, they pieced together a tearful "history" from a hundred years ago.
More than 500 people set off
363 people arrived
"Passing the time" is what people called in the old days when they crossed the ocean to make a living overseas (mainly in Southeast Asia). On the website of PINE CHURCH, the history of this church and the "passer-by" is recorded.
According to the website, in March 1903, the Singapore American-Israeli Church appointed pastors to Go to Minhou, Gutian and Fuqing in China to recruit workers, and eventually recruited more than 500 people. On August 4 of that year, they gathered in ponytail and left their hometown on the 15th of that month aboard the "Abundance" of Singapore's Wibby Shipping Company. Soon after the ship went, suddenly someone fell ill with cholera, and although the church doctor rescued it in time, many people still died one after another.
On the 22nd of that month, the "Abundance" arrived in Singapore with only 407 people. Subsequently, the first group of 303 reclamation pioneers left Singapore on the "Security" and arrived at Red Clay Kan on September 9 of that year, and then took sampan to The Port of Si Siew Yuen. On September 15 of that year, the second batch of reclaimers arrived in the reclamation area by "Wanxingyuan". More than 500 people boarded the ship on Mawei, and for various reasons, only 363 people finally arrived at Shizhaoyuan.
Fuzhou people into
Shi Zhaoyuan Reclamation Pioneer
In that year, after arriving in Shizhaoyuan, these "passers-by" temporarily took up residence in the nine Yada Houses (traditional buildings in Nanyang) pre-built by the government. They initially lived a hard life, because of the lack of water and soil, the continuous occurrence of diseases, coupled with the threat of poisonous snakes and beasts, they lived in constant uneasiness and fear. Later, everyone received cultivated land, built houses in their respective reclaimed land, endured hardships and stood hard work, and created a new world.
Some information on The Local Website in Fuzhou also confirms this history.
In the sixteenth series of "Fuqing Literature and History Materials", the reporter saw a record: At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Naisheng, a Minqing man, went to Malaysia to reclaim the Sibu famine. At the same time that Huang Naisheng created the "New Fuzhou", the reclamation recruitment of Shi Zhaoyuan was also in progress.
In the 28th year of Guangxu, Liu Yimei, a priest from Fujian, Lin Demei, Fang Baoshan, and others recruited more than 500 Chinese workers in Minhou, Gutian, Fuqing and other places to develop the "GanWen Pavilion" in Shizhaoyuan in Malaysia. In March of the following year, representatives of the American-Israeli-American Church in Singapore held talks with the British colonial authorities in Perak, Malaysia, and the two sides reached an agreement on the reclamation of the Si Siew Vien area.
Three groups of Fuzhou people arrived in Shizhaoyuan to open up rice fields, vegetable fields, orchards, shops, and hospitals, schools, and wharves in the xinken area. Later, Fuzhou people gradually moved from here to Penang, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and other places.
Where is my hometown?
It's still an unsolved mystery
Although there is a slight difference in the timing of the recording of the two data, from the known clues, DR. Kenny's great-grandfather was most likely one of the men recruited from Fuqing, who boarded a ship from Mawei to Malaysia, where they eventually settled down and became pioneers in the reclamation of the area.
Despite various clues and information, DR. Kenny's great-grandfather's "guofan" year is also narrowing, but it is still a mystery to which township of Fuqing his hometown is located.
For people who left their hometowns at that time, "over the past" should be full of bitter two words. DR. The experience of KENNY's great-grandfather is a small microcosm of the tens of millions of "passers-by" in those years. Starting from this story, we may be able to understand why overseas Chinese compatriots overseas have such a deep obsession with their hometown and searching for roots.
DR. KENNY told reporters that he plans to go back to Pioneer CHURCH to find more written records of his ancestors after the epidemic subsides.
If you have relevant clues, welcome to leave a message in the background of the official WeChat public account "Fuzhou Evening News" or "Yue Number". This newspaper will continue to follow and report on DR.KENNY's unusual homecoming journey.
【Editor-in-Charge: Xu Hasti】
Source: Fuzhou News Network Author: Weng Yumin