jiangmen (kongmoon), guangdong | 江门广东
Day 10 | 第十天
After learning more about Jiangmen | 江门, I can see why a museum dedicated to the overseas Chinese experience is located in this city.
Jiangmen | 江门 is the homeland of 3.68 million overseas Chinese, who live in over 100 countries throughout the world. It is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong, which means that it is an administrative center for several counties in the region. Historically, Jiangmen was the hub for what was called Sze Yup (Four Counties) | 四邑 * and is one of the main areas in Guangdong where many overseas Chinese can trace their lineage. In fact, up until the passing of the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (which put an end to national-origin quotas that favored those from northern and western Europe), close to 90% of Chinese in North America originated from the Sze Yup | 四邑 area. Today, Jiangmen is the administrative center for Wuyi (Five Counties) | 五邑 , which now includes Heshan in addition to the original four counties.
* Sze Yup | 四邑 Four Counties are:
The Jiangmen Wuyi Overseas Chinese Museum | 江门五邑华侨人博物馆 opened in 2010 and tells the stories of overseas Chinese with connections to the Pearl River Delta region. The beginning of the exhibition opened with a simple floor map of the Five Counties | Wuyi area where many of us stood by the names of the counties and towns where we could trace our ancestry. It was a minor act that nonetheless felt significant—I could symbolically place myself on a geographical representation of a part of the world that I had previously only ever read about and heard in stories.
The museum was comprised of three floors and organized into themes that roughly mirrored the chronological experience of the Chinese diaspora throughout the world: 1) Pursueing Dreams in Gold Mountain, 2) Pioneering Overseas, 3) Undying Loyalty to the Homeland, 4) Rise of Overseas Chinese Hometowns, 5) New Chapter of Chinatown Hometowns, and 6) Overseas Chinese Honor.
I have an understanding of the overseas Chinese narrative from an immigration perspective—specifically through a Chinese American lens—that emphasizes points of arrival, and places and experiences that are uniquely North American. This exhibition, however, focuses on the overseas Chinese experience as a matter of departure and emigration, highlighting conditions and locations specific to the Pearl River Delta region, and providing insight into what was left behind.
It also showcases common traits among the Chinese diaspora such as traditional herbal stores, bilingual newspapers, and Chinese language schools—entities that created connections to the homeland. Aspects of the exhibition were already familiar to me: a recreated scene of a twelve year old boy interrogated at the Angel Island Immigration Center in CA; a life size display of Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad in the US; and vignettes of Chinatown stores and associations. I was seeing parts of my life history displayed in the exhibits.
The size of the museum’s collection is impressive; there are approximately 35,000 objects—many of which are primary documents such as passports, ship tickets, employment contracts, landing/ arrival permits, and coaching books—donated by Sze-Yup/Wuyi descendants. Because many overseas Chinese were subjected to strict exclusionary immigration laws, this historic movement of people can be traced through the extensive documentation. ■