Townsmen Sentiment Always Serves as a Link

[Dixie Dixie <dixie1999_2000@yahoo.com>]

Townsmen Sentiment Always Serves as a Link

- People's Daily, China (21 November 2000)

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200011/21/eng20001121_55741.html

 
Where there is sea water, there are the footmarks of
Hakkas. The 16th Hakka Congress, the common gala
meeting of tens of millions of Hakkas scattered around
the world, was held solemnly in western Fujian, the
ancestral home of Hakkas. 

Old friends and new acquaintances gathered joyously in
Longyan to renew their friendship and discuss
development with the same local accent, it was indeed
a gathering of dignitaries, which was filled with joy.


A delegation organized by overseas Chinese residing in
faraway Mauritius has returned, dozens of groups of
Hakkas in Taiwan demanded to attend the meeting. The
present meeting of Hakka fellow villagers was held in
western Fujian, the "cradle of Hakkas", which has
sparked strong reaction among overseas Chinese and
compatriots in Hong Kong and Taiwan who vied with one
another to sign up to attend the meeting. 

With its prominent regional glamour, the meeting of
Hakkas embodies the aspirations of Hakkas around the
world. The torch of the meeting is passed on from one
to another, which is being run ever better and
attracts the attention of the world. 

Congress in Longyan 

The 16th World Hakka Congress opened in Fujian's
Longyan November 20. 

Fujian provincial Party committee secretary Chen
Mingwen declared the meeting opened. Distinguished
persons of Hakka origin from Taiwan Wu Poh-xiung, from
Hong Kong Tseng Hin-chi, from the United States Xiung
Teh-lung and from Singapore Zeng Liangcai all gave
ebullient speeches at the meeting. Xi Jinping,
governor of Fujian Province, addressed the meeting,
extending warm welcome to fellow Hakkas coming from
across the world to attend the meeting. 

Song and dance programs full of the flavor of Hakka
culture and custom were performed after the opening
ceremony. 

Attending the meeting were more than 3,000
distinguished guests from some 20 countries and
regions around the world, over 1,700 of whom were from
overseas. More than 100 organizations of Hakkas, and
nearly 70 of overseas organizations attended the
meeting. 

Rich and colorful activities were arranged for this
meeting. For example, a western Fujian genealogy
exhibition, a calligraphy, painting and photo
exhibition and a book, audio-video exhibition had been
held before the opening ceremony. A public lecture on
hometown custom, a western Fujian local flavor snack
exhibition as well as recommendation of various items
and signing ceremonies have been held in succession.
An academic symposium on "Hakkas and the 21st century"
will also be opened November 21. 

Western Fujian is one of the principal ancestral
homelands. At present, among the 100 million Hakkas
who had moved to live in various parts of the world,
ancestors with 152 surnames had once lived in western
Fujian. Western Fujian is also one of the places with
a concentration of Hakkas living in compact
communities. 

Today, this region is inhabited by 3 million Hakkas,
scattered around 10 counties (county-level cities and
districts) in Longyan and Sanming cities, 98 percent
of whom are Hakkas living in Changting, Liancheng,
Shanghang, Wuping, Yongding, Ninghua, Qingliu and
Mingxi counties. Since the beginning of the 1990s,
numerous Taiwan compatriots and overseas Hakkas
returned to western Fujian each year for seeking roots
and paying homage to their ancestors, sight-seeing and
tourism, investment and setting up enterprises. 

Townsmen Sentiment 

No matter to which corner of the globe a person goes
from his or her hometown, his or her heart is tied up
by an invisible silk thread, this is what is meant by
the bond of townsmen sentiment. Even in the modern
society of the information age, the phrase "seeking
roots" is still not outdated. 

The Hakka Congress is overflowing everywhere with the
sentiment of homeland which, indeed, has touched the
hearts of the distinguished guests from afar, but
people have not forgotten another proper business:
seeking an opportunity for development. 

They engaged in heated discussions about investigation
into the investment environment, having economic and
trade talks and academic symposium. Hakka townspeople
scattered in different regions made an appointment to
meet each other at the Hakka Congress to be held in
the motherland. 

Some of them came for signing a contract, and some
wanted to make acquaintances with several new
cooperative partners. They said: We were, after all,
members of the "same family" 500 years ago, our common
local accent represents a very good starting-point.
So, the meeting of Hakkas has become a site for the
fellow-countrymen to make friends, it is all the more
an arena for outstanding people to start up a new
undertaking. 

For those townspeople living in the harsh environment
abroad, the most direct solicitude and aid they gain
usually come from their fellow-countrymen. Compatriots
with the ancestral homes in China now living abroad
have started up business through painstaking efforts;
at the same time, they are thirty for exchange and
helping each other. Their sameness in language,
culture, customs and habits and blood relationship has
formed a strong cohesion and has thus generated
various types of organizations. 

A look around the world reveals that the activities
organized overseas by foreigners with Chinese origin
are becoming increasingly animated, meanwhile, the
various localities of China's mainland, the ancestral
land, have also organized social fellowship unions and
actively striven to gain the right to host meeting of
worldwide organizations. 

In addition, the various types of activities organized
by overseas Chinese organizations have woven many
dense networks which demonstrate the cohesion and
affinity of the Chinese people. The activities held
vigorously in the mainland of the motherland have
provided the best arena for Chinese sons and daughters
at home and abroad to enhance friendship and kinship
and to show and introduce the image of the motherland
undergoing reform and opening up and have thus
promoted the construction of their hometowns. 



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