\ ˈhōm-ˌkə-miŋ \ noun. a return home —
A place to document my reflections as I figure out my way towards ancestral villages in the Pearl River Delta region of southern China, reestablish my connections to this past, and consider how it informs who I am today.
I did not spend time in any of the neighborhoods of Hong Kong on this visit, but even from the outskirts, it felt familiar to be there.
I grew up eating foods from the Pearl River Delta /Taishan area so there were many meals on our trip I was familiar with and comforted by.
On our final day in China, we spent the morning exploring Elephant Trunk Hill 象鼻山, known as the symbol of Guilin.
Off the beaten path, we visited Lingqu Canal | 灵渠, considered to be one of the oldest and best preserved water conservancy projects in China.
We spent the day exploring the countryside near Yangshuo.
This region of southern China is dominated with a karst landscape that looks like a series of sculptural rolling hills formed by the erosion of limestone.
Pearl River Delta is a region in Guangdong, China, and the place of my ancestry.
After visiting my ancestral villages, a paternal uncle took me to places in Toishan connected to the overseas Chinese experience.
During my stay in southern China I first heard the term Lingnan while learning about cultural traditions unique to the Pearl River Delta region.
I spent the weekend visiting the respective villages where my father and mother were born, transversing the county of Toishan for two days.
You probably have noticed a common theme from these experiences in southern Guangdong—the unique bilateral exchange of ideas among overseas Chinese and their hometown villages.
Li Yuan | 立园 was built in early 20th century by Mr. Wei Li Xie | 谢维立 , a wealthy overseas Chinese based in the US.
Baihe town | 百合镇 served as a key location in the WuYi/Szeyup area to receive the remains of overseas Chinese.
As we entered Cangdong, I heard the familiar sounds of beating drums and gongs, and saw glimpses of shiny colored fabric bouncing up and down in the distance—our arrival was greeted with lion dancing at the village gate.
Upon approaching Zilicun | 自力村, a small village in Kaiping | 开平, the landscape is punctuated by strikingly featured towers known as diaolou | 碉楼.
Zhongshan is one of the few cities in China named after a person:
After learning more about Jiangmen | 江门, I can see why a museum dedicated to the overseas Chinese experience is located in this city.
Wuyi University is located in what is considered to be China’s first hometown of overseas Chinese–Jiangmen City.
After staying the night in Guangzhou, we began our journey towards the Pearl River Delta region…
Guangzhou was always one of those places I knew I had a connection to—even before I ever visited.
To be honest, I’d never heard of this city before and probably would have never traveled there on my own.
We spent the morning visiting the grounds of the Yearning Tea Plantation | 雁南飞茶园 in the mountains of Meizhou.
Unlike other Han Chinese, Hakka are not named after a geographical region such as a province or county in China.
Xiamen, Fujian is a port city on China’s southeast coast, across a strait from Taiwan.
Each of us made our own arrangements to arrive in Xiamen, Fujian - the starting point of our tour.
For three weeks in November 2019, I traveled with a group of Americans of Chinese descent —
A few weeks ago, I visited historic sites along the western portion of the transcontinental railroad connected to Chinese labor.
On first glance, this is an ordinary image of a presentation taking place in a meeting room of a hotel.
Experiencing different places can challenge our perspectives and cause us to reassess meaning. We return with new stories and new realizations as well as a desire to share the beauty of the places visited.