The events that made our year

Taiwan residents celebrate coming home

ZHANG YI

One of the unforgettable people I met last year was a senior from Taiwan who had traced his roots and relatives in Fujian province through his family tree and age-old stories passed down by his ancestors.

In June, I traveled to Xiamen, Fujian, to cover the Straits Forum, an annual grassroots communications event between the Chinese mainland and the island.

As I was having dinner in the hotel where many of the participants from Taiwan were staying, I was attracted by loud laughter from a nearby table.

I walked over and was told they were celebrating a family reunion for one member. The 10 people, all surnamed Huang, were Taiwan residents who had traveled to Fujian during the forum to seek relatives in the mainland.

One of them, Huang Ching-hsiung, 72, was visiting the mainland for the first time. He had discovered the place his forefathers came from in Quanzhou, Fujian, and met his mainland relatives.

I asked if he would share his story with me, and that night we talked in his hotel room till almost midnight. He became emotional because he had finally fulfilled his father's last wish－to find out where the family originated.

Knowing one's origins is an important thing for Chinese people. Many decades ago, cross-Straits communications were severed for some time, which resulted in people losing contact with family and friends on both sides.

On Jan 2, President Xi Jinping envisioned peaceful reunification at a gathering in Beijing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan in 1979, when the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress sent a fraternal message to the people on the island through People's Daily.

"We are all of the same family. Cross-Straits affairs are domestic affairs and should naturally be addressed through discussion and consultation between ourselves," Xi said.

I was honored to listen to his speech on the spot, and I felt confident about cross-Straits relations in the coming year.

Last year, the central government enacted 31 measures to grant Taiwan residents who study, work or start businesses in the mainland the same benefits as those afforded to mainlanders.

For the first time, the number of Taiwan residents who visited the mainland exceeded 6 million, with 400,000 making maiden visits.