Duanfen, Toishan, guangdong | 端芬镇台山广东
Day 15 | 第十五天
After visiting my ancestral villages, a paternal uncle took me to places in Toishan connected to the overseas Chinese experience. Through these sites, I had the opportunity to see how my family experiences were part of larger historical migratory events.
Haikou Port | 海口
We traveled to Duanfen Town, located in the south central region of Toishan, to visit Haikou Port | 海口 at the confluence of Datong and Duanfen Rivers. Haikou was once the primary point of departure for many Toishanese heading overseas. It was built in 1853 and transferred people to larger ports such as Hong Kong, where they would continue their journeys abroard. As I stood on an overlook observing the waterway, I wondered what it was like at that same spot 150 years ago, when the rivers were full of ferries shepherding thousands of potential laborers to distant lands. It is almost certain that my ancestors boarded ships at this very shore for far away economic opportunities, including my great, great grandfather who worked on the US transcontinental railroad.
Sliver Letters | Yín Xìn | 银信
Located right above Haikou Port was the Yinxin Memorial Plaza—dedicated to remembering the overseas remittances sent to China in the 19th and 20th century. These remittances were known as yinxin or silver letters, and became part of the United Nations Memory of the World Register in 2013. According to the U.N. nomination, overseas Chinese began sending yinxin around the mid-1800s and officially stopped in 1979, when the Bank of China began formally processing overseas remittances. These letters featured hundreds of correspondences from decades of Toishanse emigration and provided first-hand accounts of overseas Chinese experiences. During periods of political instability in the late 19th and early 20th century, many villages in the Pearl River Delta region were dependent on the remittances from their overseas-based family members. The yinxin provided a vital link for loved ones separated by oceans and served as an economic lifeline for these communities—including my own paternal and maternal villages.
Mei (Moy) Grand Courtyard | Meijia Dayuan | 梅家大院
From Haikou Port we traveled a short distance along the Datong River to the Mei (Moy) Family Grand Courtyard, which was built in 1931 by overseas Chinese and their hometown relatives. There was one central entrance made of twenty feet tall steel doors cemented into concrete walls–clearly designed for security and protection. Once passed through the entrance, the view opened into a large rectangular open space surrounded by two-to-three story buildings that featured a mix of southern Chinese and European architectural styles. In many ways, the Mei Grand Courtyard reminded me of the diaolous we visited in Kaiping. At both sites, many of the buildings served as fortifications and displayed an interplay of eastern and western influences, highlighting the transnational nature of the overseas Chinese experience. The large central space served as a marketplace, and the location of the courtyard made it an ideal place for gathering because of its proximity to water and land transportation. When we visited, a few shops were opened and sold snacks like tofu pudding, sesame seed candy, and dried tangerine peels—specialties of the region. Many of the buildings within the courtyard were empty but bore witness to a layered past. ■