Xiamen, A Trip Down Memory Lane. Part 4: The Legacy

Historically, the Chinese have been trading in the Indomalayan region for centuries. Today, Malaysia maintains very strong bilateral relations with the People's Republic of China. In times of conflict and war in olden China, many Chinese escaped the conflict by sailing elsewhere looking for greener pastures. Throughout the whole Southeast Asia, these Chinese migrants settled and built up communities that last till today. It is no different in Malaysia, where the ethnic Chinese Malaysians represent one of the three major races in Malaysia.

Above: Plaque commemorating my grandfather's contribution to the building of the village school. 

Today, we all identify ourselves as citizens of the country. However, I couldn't say that my great grandfather felt the same way. I feel very strongly that he treated Malaya/Malaysia as a temporary refuge, waiting for peace to come upon China and the right time to return. Along with him, many from the same generation held similar thoughts. One could not blame them as China was where they were born and where they felt they had a stronger sense of belonging. As such, when China was going through a very difficult period of conflict and war, many of the overseas Chinese sent their newfound wealth back to the motherland to aid in the pursuit of a better future.

Xiamen, A Trip Down Memory Lane. Part 3: The Lineage

Traditionally, the Chinese people have an infamous way of naming their offspring. Every same generation is to have the same character as the middle name as a way to identify which clan one came from and which generation of such a clan one belonged to. The naming system was extremely complex and it differs across the different subgroups of Han Chinese.

While the tradition is still largely kept intact in Malaysia, Singapore and other places with ethnic Chinese populations, many families have lost touch of the exact sequence of names that one suppose to follow across the generations. The modern way of maintaining such a tradition is for a family to use the same middle name of their eldest child for every following child, nephews and nieces included. Fortunately, within my family itself, the original naming sequence is still kept intact. This way, I can easily know if I were to bump into someone of the sap6me lineage as I am just through their surnames and middle names. In fact, it would not be strange to find people with the same middle name, supposedly from the same generation, that are much much older than I personally am.

Above: "蔡氏家府" engraved plaque on top of entrance to ancestral hall.

I have always been very curious how we manage to keep in touch of the whole naming sequence and finally, on my third visit to the village have I only realised that the answer lied within an old ancestral shrine dedicated to the whole family. I have no impression of visiting such a place prior to my third trip. Of course, back then I was only interested in the seemingly infinite amount of fireworks I could play with.

Xiamen, A Trip Down Memory Lane. Part 2: The House

History had always been one of my favourite subjects back in my schooling days. I was always mesmerized by stories of war, heroism, discovery and so on. Hence, I was always very interested to know more about my family history. In my younger days, I would always enjoy the trips to my grandfather's office, situated right along the banks of the Malacca river. Standing by the bank of the river, I always imagined how life used to be back in the olden days, trying to relive the past. I have heard so much from the elders of how children used to jump from the top of the bridge that connected the two opposing banks into the river for a swim, how fishermen used to unload their bowels right into the river from a hut by the bank, how there used to be rice stacked up high until the ceiling during the rice trading days, watched upon by pythons and monitor lizards that kept rodents away. That was a small part of my family history, I yearned to know more. As such, being privileged enough to be able to travel to the village where my ancestors lived for many generations had given me a small glimpse into my family history.

Xiamen, A Trip Down Memory Lane. Part 1: The Village

Many years ago, back in Mao Lin village in Xiamen, China, a fight erupted amongst a few villagers at a communal well. In the dispute, one of the villagers, a gangster, was struck in the head with a bucket and later died of his injuries.  Fearing of being being a victim of rataliation, one of the men present at the scene decided to leave and sail to a foreign land. Along he brought his family and on he sailed far far away, on a vessel, bound south. The vessel will then enter the Straits of Malacca, dock at the ports along the Malacca river and the passengers disembarked onto land, in a small port city along the west coast of the Malay peninsula.