THE
JOURNEY TO CHINA
The climax
of the program is the trip to China, where each intern visits
his or her ancestral village (s). Under optimal conditions
with ten interns, twenty villages can be visited within a
ten-day period. In spite of the crammed schedule, interns
achieve a higher feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment
in the knowledge that they have successfully pursued the histories
of both sides of the family or, in a few cases, of two different
ancestors on one side of the family. In preparation for this
endeavor, the program coordinators start early in the program,
usually during the interview process, to obtain the names
of the ancestral villages of each intern in order to map out
the group's travel itinerary, and to gather pertinent information
on the Chinese names of parents, grandparents, and other relatives,
which can serve as clues to locating the correct sites.
The final
search for the ancestral village begins well before the journey.
It starts with finding out the written Chinese name of the
village, the township and county that governs it, and the
municipality that has jurisdiction over the township and county
(10). It also requires the written Chinese names of the relative
or relatives who last resided in the village before emigrating.
This information is then provided to the Guangdong Province's
Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, which sends the data to the
regional and local Overseas Chinese Affairs offices. They,
in turn, locate the village, the village leaders, elders,
and relatives, if any are there. The Pearl River Delta region
houses thousands of villages. In a great majority of the cases,
the only way to locate the villages is through the township
and village Overseas Chinese Affairs offices, which seek out
the knowledgeable village folks to guide in the search. This
is because there are no detailed maps that clearly pinpoint
the location of many of these villages. The way to the villages
resides in the minds and memories of the locals.
If complete
and accurate information has been forwarded in advance, preferably
two months ahead of time, and if the local offices have done
their groundwork, the search is relatively simple. For the
most part, the local authorities will simply confirm the data
with the intern, bring in a relative or two, and guide the
intern to the village and ancestral home, if it is still in
existence. Should the local officials fail to research ahead
of time, an on-the-spot search in the village can be tedious
and frustrating. In a few instances, the elders who would
have known the intern's ancestors have all died and no connections
are made. The search concludes only with the finding of the
village.
In cases
of incomplete or inaccurate information, the search is invariably
more complicated and difficult. The ancestor's name, for example,
may turn the search into a strange puzzle. Every now and then
the name does not match the local records. This results from
several possible factors. Conceivably, the ancestor may have
changed his or her name in the United States. During the sixty-one
oppressive years of the Chinese exclusion period (1882-1943),
many immigrants arrived in this country as "paper sons"
of other people, and thus carried with them surnames that
were not their own. Another possibility is the use of names
other than the given name recorded in the village. In the
conventional Chinese tradition, men commonly have up to three
names: the first, rumingor xiaoming, given at birth; the second,
xueming, created by his teacher when he begins attending school;
and the third, zuming, adopted after his marriage. Sometimes
all the names are recorded or known to the village elders.
As for the younger generations, names other than the given
ones are usually not known. Accordingly, accurate identification
of the names is essential. Equally important is the accurate
identification of the village. Having the wrong village name
makes it almost impossible to proceed with the search.
Once
inside the village, the Chinese officials take great care
in reconciling the facts with the interns to certify that
they are indeed the "real" descendants. These officials
will frequently ask the same question in different ways to
en- sure that the answers match the data they have on record.
For example, they may ask, "when did your ancestor leave
the village?" The same question may be phrased, “how
long have your ancestors lived in America?" What they
fear most is to usher the interns to the wrong ancestral home.
This, to them, is a grave ethical violation! A mistaken identity
not only can be embarrassing but also can permanently damage
the lineage records of the intern and the family. Virtually
in every case, the officials will summon several elders and
village historians to join in the discussion for validation.
A case
in point, 1994 intern Albert Chan had to return to his mother's
ancestral village a second time to complete his search. During
the interim, several discussions took place with the local
officials to verify certain information. The difficulty with
this search was that his maternal grandfather had changed
his name in the United States, and this new name was unknown
to any of the village elders and Albert did not know of his
grandfather's original name~ Although Albert provided the
officials with the address (street and number) of the ancestral
home, they were not fully convinced of this information and
were very hesitant to take him to the house. According to
the officials, the ancestral home itself had been sold and
demolished, and a new home now stood on that site. The officials
told Albert that the best they could do for him was to show
him the location, but they could not take him into the - new
home. It was not until an elder showed up, a man who once
knew Albert's grandfather that the whole tone of the search
changed. The elder looked at Albert and said, "You look
exactly like your grandfather when I last saw him in Guangzhou
some fifty years ago!" That statement instantly created
a new trust. Albert confirmed that he was a mirror image of
his maternal grandfather. "There's no way to fake a face!"
remarked one of the local guides. The rest is history. Not
only did Albert enter the new home, but he also discovered
that part of the ancestral home still stood unchanged and
still belonged to his family. He also was treated to a wonderful
official banquet where the best of the local Shunde cuisine
was served!
Cooperative
officials in the regional and local Overseas Chinese Affairs
offices play a key role in creating the conditions for a successful
search. Virtually all of the officials who have worked with
the program have treated this search in a serious manner,
and they have gone out of their way to assist the interns
in their quests. There have been very few instances in which
officials were reluctant, and in these cases they would diplomatically
say, "It's been too long. Everyone has emigrated. No
one here knows about your family. It's very difficult. We
no longer have anyone who can help us help you." In cases
like this, the search requires going into the village itself
and asking the local residents directly, as in the case of
1992 intern Hamilton Chang, who through this method finally
located his paternal grandfather's ancestral home.
From
time to time, productive searches may yield genealogical records
that go back twenty-five to thirty generations; ancestral
portraits and photo- graphs; stories (lore and legends) of
the village and ancestors; artifacts like ceramic bowls, double-gourd
water containers, teapots, or other items that were used by
the ancestors; or newly discovered relatives. At the public
presentation, 1999 intern Warren Lei remarked, "I woke
up with a few butterflies in my stomach hoping that perhaps
someone would know of my ancestors. . . . . [S]suddenly my
fears were calmed as the city officials informed us that I
had relatives that still lived there!" In 1992, intern
Lily Wong wanted to postpone her search, because she was afraid
that she would find nothing-no relatives, no ancestral home,
or even no village. Her fear stemmed from the fact that her
family emigrated from the village over one hundred years ago,
first to Burma and then to the United States, and through
the years had lost contact with the village. Lily, after some
coaching, decided to continue the search. To her amazement,
not only did she find the village, she discovered relatives
who closely resembled her grandfather, an ancestral home,
and most valuable of all, a genealogy book that recorded over
twenty-five generations of her family.
