On April 14, 1988, in one of the most ordinary and unknown small mountain villages in Fujian Province, China, the villagers were beaming with joy and lights, gathering together to welcome the arrival of a distinguished guest.
This distinguished guest is the first female president in Asian history, Corazon Aquino, who came from the Philippines, and her purpose of coming this time is relatively simple and clear, that is, to return to the place where her ancestors lived to worship.
It all starts with the generation of the distant great-grandfather of Corazon Aquino.
In 1861, her great-grandfather Xu Yuhuan made a bold decision to escape the coastal war and follow the villagers from Hongwei Village in Jiaomei Town, Longhai County, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, to the Philippines to seek a living.
Xu Yuhuan was only 20 years old at the time, and after months of wandering in the South China Sea with his fellow villagers, he finally found a place to stay in Manila, the Philippines, and has been fishing for a living ever since.
Four years later, Xu Yuhuan was already very familiar with the local residents, and under the introduction of others, he successfully married a local Filipino girl and joined the Catholic Church according to local customs.
As we all know, the Philippines is located in the tropics, rich in rubber and all kinds of tropical fruits, Xu Yuhuan was originally a farmer's son, more able to bear hardships and hard work, so he started planting according to local conditions.
No one expected that this Fujian boy was also quite talented in business, while taking care of the planting industry, he also looked at the opportunity to do some sugar and rice business, and slowly began to contract some construction projects.
After decades of hard work, Xu Yuhuan relied on accumulation and pioneering spirit to create his own world in a foreign country, saved up a rich family property, and became a local famous family.
In Mrs. Corazon Aquino's generation, it is said that her family's rubber plantation covers a huge area, and if you use a fast horse to go around, you may not be able to run for 7 days and 7 nights.
Not only that, since ancient times, politics and business have not separated families, and Mrs. Aquino's family is also well versed in this way, serving as a member of Congress since her grandfather's generation, and her father, uncle, brother and other family members have all served as senators.
On January 25, 1933, Madame Aquino was born in such a famous family, and she is also a real lady in the sense of the word, and has received a classical, monastic formal education since childhood.
When Mrs. Aquino was 14 years old, her father sent her directly to the United States to study in order to give her a better education, and she did not live up to her family's expectations, and she received a bachelor's degree when she returned home.
In 1954, Mrs. Aquino met a young Filipino politician, Benigno Aquino, and the two met and hated each other, and soon became a couple.
Benigno Aquino
According to Filipino custom, the wife needed to be given the surname of her husband, so she was affectionately known as Mrs. Aquino, and in order to support her husband's cause, Mrs. Aquino became a housewife, and kept the family in order, silently paying behind her husband's back.
The following year, her young and promising husband, Benigno Aquino, was elected mayor of Manila, instantly becoming a rising star in Philippine politics.
Everything went well, and another five years later, Benigno Aquino was promoted to governor of Tala province at the age of 27, and his future was limitless.
Aquino is speaking
However, the appearance of a person completely broke the peaceful and happy life of Mrs. Aquino's family.
In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was elected president of the Philippines, a veteran politician with extensive political experience who began to impose dictatorship under the banner of "democracy and anti-communism."
In order to achieve the goal of long-term rule in the Philippines, Marcos did not hesitate to install his own cronies throughout the country, cultivate dead parties, and vigorously engage in "one-word", and his New Socialist Party controlled 90% of the appointment and dismissal of personnel in important provinces and cities.
Economically, the Marcos family took the opportunity to amass wealth and bribes, and became the social trend of the time, resulting in the Filipino people suffering and complaining, the country's foreign debt at that time was as high as 26.5 billion US dollars, the entire Philippine world style, social class contradictions intensified, and in previous years.
In 1968, Benigno Aquino became an opposition senator, trying to use political power to regulate corrupt government agencies against a backdrop of political chaos and the country's economic constraints.
Aquino gave speeches everywhere, encouraging the people not to ignore the evils of the dictator, and to rise up together to resist, openly challenging the highest levels of the country with "moral courage" and inner morality.
However, political loneliness and helplessness, how can Aquino alone withstand the torrent of injustice?
In September 1972, Marcos finally couldn't bear it anymore and announced the imposition of military law on Benigno Aquino, secretly falsely accusing him of being a "communist" and imprisoning him.
Five years later, Marcos saw that Aquino still refused to give in, so he framed him for participating in the murder of a village patriarch and sentenced Aquino to death.
Mr. and Mrs. Marcos
Fortunately, thanks to the mediation of the American human rights organization, Aquino was able to suspend his sentence, and after suffering from another 5 years of imprisonment, unfortunately his body suffered from heart artery obstruction.
In July 1980, philippine authorities finally approved Benigno Aquino's medical treatment in the United States, and he fled to the United States with his wife and family.
After being treated by American doctors and carefully cared for by Mrs. Aquino, Benigno Aquino slowly recovered his healthy body in the United States and was subsequently hired by Harvard University as a professor.
However, this seemingly comfortable and leisure life has made Benignano Aquino, who is born with a sense of justice, suffer physically and mentally, and every day when he mentions things in the Philippines, he can't help but cry.
Seeing her husband so sad, Mrs. Aquino could not bear it, and sometimes encouraged him to return to his homeland to save his compatriots who were still suffering.
On August 21, 1983, With boundless love for his homeland, Benignano Aquino re-embarked on the land of the Philippines, dreaming of bringing a bright future to the people of the country.
Unexpectedly, the killer arranged by Philippine President Marcos has been waiting for a long time, and Aquino's Flight 811 has just arrived at Manila Airport, and he was stabbed to death before he could get out of the door.
The assassination shocked the international community at the time due to media reports, and the Philippines triggered a number of rallies and demonstrations against the Marcos regime.
Forced to do so, Marcos promised to resume the activities of other domestic political parties in the same year and agreed to hold parliamentary elections in 1984.
Mrs. Aquino, who was far away in the United States, was devastated when she learned the bad news of her husband, and from this moment on, she saw the darkness of Philippine politics once and for all.
To this end, Mrs. Aquino, who had never been involved in political life, was determined to inherit her husband's will and return to the country to continue the work he had accomplished.
After learning of this news, the opposition in the Philippines came forward to respond positively and unanimously recommended Mrs. Aquino to participate in the Philippine presidential election, which Marcos did not expect.
In February 1986, the Philippine presidential election was held ahead of schedule, and Mrs. Aquino easily defeated Marcos in the election by absolute superiority, becoming the first female president of the Philippines and even In Asia.
However, after the election, Marcos did not want to give up on this, and blackmailed the National Assembly to announce his re-election with a margin of 1.5 million votes.
Who expected, after that, about 1 million people in Manila, the Philippines, took to the streets to protest, and the Philippine deputy chief of the general staff, Fidel Ramos, also announced his defection, marcos understood that the trend had gone, gave up the idea of using the military force to arrest Mrs. Aquino, and was finally forced to step down, ending his 22-year rule.
Due to the outrage of the crowd, the millions of filipino people who formed this "People Power Revolution" movement surrounded the Malakannan Palace where the Marcos family lived, and finally frightened Marcos into fleeing to Hawaii with his wife and children.
After taking office, Mrs. Aquino began to carry out drastic reforms in the country, was extremely close to the people during her administration, had a strong sense of responsibility for the country, and successfully presided over the new constitution of the Philippines.
In response, Marcos's remnants expressed strong dissatisfaction, especially the military often set up obstacles to the implementation of domestic reform policies, and even used them to mutiny in an attempt to oust her from power.
Mrs. Aquino showed great wisdom and flexibility, soft and hard, not only eased the contradictions with the military, stabilized the hearts of the military, but also dared to collect fees from the US garrison base.
In 1947, the United States signed a military garrison agreement with the Philippine government to counter communist forces in Southeast Asia, but in fact, for so many years, they never paid rent, but paid it in the form of other financial aid.
Mrs. Aquino decided to fight this hegemony, and after unremitting efforts, finally reached a new agreement with the U.S. military to collect a total of $900 million from two U.S. military bases in the Philippines, until the Americans felt too expensive and announced their withdrawal from the Philippines in 1991.
What is rare and valuable is that although Mrs. Aquino is already the president of a country, she has never forgotten the origin of her ancestors, has always called herself a "daughter of China", and has entrusted friends to go to China many times to find her roots and ancestors, hoping that she can return to her homeland to see for herself.
After many searches, Mrs. Aquino finally found the homeland she thought about day and night, which was in Hongwei Village, Jiaomei Town, Longhai County, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, China.
At 10:00 a.m. on April 14, 1988, the Philippine presidential motorcade arrived at the mouth of the village, and for a time the village immediately drummed in unison, firecrackers shook the sky, and the welcome ceremony with the characteristics of southern Fujian such as umbrellas and drums took turns to appear, a lively and extraordinary scene.
After getting off the bus, surrounded by villagers, Mrs. Aquino led her two daughters and a group of more than ten Filipino government officials who accompanied her to the door of the Hsu Ancestral Hall, and then went in to worship the ancestral tablets.
In the face of the enthusiastic people of her hometown, Mrs. Aquino also made a brief speech, saying that she had come this time not only for the sake of state affairs, but also to complete her many years of dreams, although she had left here, but she would always be the daughter of this village.
This is the charm of a female politician, and there is also a deep blood affection of a Chinese compatriot, who uses his own practical actions to set an example of not forgetting the origin.