Digging up the family roots

An increasing number of ethnic Chinese from overseas are traveling to China in search of their roots, and trying to find long-lost relatives as well as long-buried stories. [Photo/Xinhua]

Ethnic Chinese from overseas are traveling to China in search of their history, but while the trips can provide a sense of closure, they can also lead to disappointment and dismay, as Zhao Xu reports.

William Fong, a historian and third-generation Chinese-Canadian, felt he'd completed the thousands of kilometers covered by his grandparents during a four-week ocean voyage, not at the end of a 10-hour flight, but with the first whiff of steamed fish, the signature dish of a particular part of Guangdong province in South China.

"Both my paternal and maternal grandparents left their home in Guangdong for Canada at the end of the 19th century. Born in Canada, I grew up with my ultraconservative paternal grandfather, who maintained his allegiance to the fallen empire of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) until the end of his life, and my grandmother, who made sure I knew how steamed fish tastes," Fong said.

His grandmother never had an opportunity to return to her homeland, but she made sure Fong memorized the name of her village. "Ning Xi Li - the place I traveled to only two weeks ago - was always at the back of my mind," the 66-year-old said.

"When I told the villagers who I was and that I belonged there, they said they knew. My grandfather had sent back my father's university graduation photo." In fact, he was told that his father's picture hung inside the Fong family's ancestral home until the start of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), when an overseas connection was often viewed with suspicion. "They had been preparing for my return," he said.