Photo by Chen Yingjie, Quanzhou City,
Due to the Japanese invasion of China, wars on the southern coast of Fujian were in full swing. In 1938, 4-year-old Chen Yongzai left his hometown Quanzhou, Fujian with his family for the first time, and traveled across the ocean to make a living in the Philippines, which was once called "Luzon".
From Quanzhou to Penghu, and then to the Philippines, is a route to Nanyang that Quanzhou people are used to.
As early as more than 800 years ago, Wang Dayou, the magistrate of Quanzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, built 200 houses in the Penghu Islands, and sent nearly 1,000 troops to guard it to ensure the smooth flow of Quanzhou, Penghu and the Philippines, and to maintain the overseas trade of Quanzhou Port. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Dong Liuxuan, a Jinjiang native who fled to , Luzon Island, proliferated and became the earliest Filipino overseas Chinese who could be found.
However, this is not the earliest record of Quanzhou people going abroad. The history of Quanzhou people abroad began with the history of maritime transportation and trade. At least during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, large ships in Quanzhou had already sailed to the Southern Ocean. For thousands of years, local people who make their living by the sea have gone to foreign countries to survive and seek careers due to the environment or due to personnel. They have been constantly sailing and whistling.
There are overseas Chinese everywhere in the ancient city
Like most ancestors, Chen Yongzai also traveled across the ocean to the Philippines.
From starting from scratch to decades of hard work, Chen Yongzai established his huge business kingdom in the Philippines and wrote one business legend after another, such as how he became the "Tobacco King", "Beer King", "Bank King" and "Aviation King". These stories are widely circulated in the Philippines and China.
But what people in Quanzhou talk about is his long-term selfless feedback to his hometown and his country of origin. Since the 1980s, Chen Yongzai has donated and built many hospital outpatient buildings, primary and secondary schools, libraries, and stadiums in Quanzhou. He also contributed to the country's worries in major events such as the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, the construction of the "Water Cube" venue in 2008, the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, and the Yushu earthquake in 2010. According to incomplete statistics, Chen Yongzai's various donations over the years have exceeded 100 million yuan.
. In Quanzhou, this is by no means an isolated case.
Quanzhou, a hometown of overseas Chinese with more than a thousand years of history, currently has more than 9.5 million overseas Chinese living abroad, more than 8.65 million permanent residents in Quanzhou. Some people call it "Overseas Quanzhou". Overseas Quanzhou people adhere to the hard-working spirit of "only you can win if you love to fight", and with good management, they have strong financial resources. Taking the Philippines, Indonesian , Singapore , Malaysia as examples, among the top 20 rich people, there are many spring villagers. They not only created wealth for the country they live in, but also made significant contributions to the economic and social development of their hometown.
According to the data provided by the Quanzhou City Foreign Overseas Chinese Office, in 1979, Quanzhou City received donations of 13.61 million yuan from overseas Chinese and Hong Kong and Macao compatriots, and exceeded 100 million yuan in 1988. Since the reform and opening up, Quanzhou City has received a total of 11.9 billion yuan in donations, accounting for almost half of the total donations received in the province.
It is no exaggeration to say that after 1949, especially after the reform and opening up, almost every Quanzhou person's activities after birth will be related to the donations of overseas Chinese - most outpatient buildings and ward buildings in hospitals, most teaching buildings in primary and secondary schools and universities, libraries, museums, stadiums and other cultural and sports centers, roads, bridges, airports and other transportation facilities.
Today, when people walk in the streets and alleys of Quanzhou counties and cities, passing through the "Patriotic Building", " Lu Zhenwan Building", "Overseas Chinese Hometown Sports Center", "Overseas Chinese History Museum" and other places they donated that year, they can't help but feel admiring for the overseas villagers who were born in this hot land.
Education and education people see overseas Chinese
About 70% of the donations from overseas villagers from Quanzhou are used to establish education.
Establishing education is a tradition for overseas Quanzhou people to repay their hometown. From the founding of Jimeixue Village in the early 20th century, Chen Jiageng , which founded Jimeixue Village in , Xiamen University , to the founder of , Liming University , to Lu Zhenwan, who donated more than 170 teaching buildings, this tradition has been passed down for more than a century.
Chen Yongzai also pays attention to education, especially the Chinese language education of the new generation of Chinese overseas.
As early as 1986, he began to sponsor Filipino Chinese youth to study abroad at Quanzhou Huaqiao University to study Chinese language and literature. In the Philippines, he established the "Chinese Teaching and Working Scholarship" to support high school graduates with excellent Chinese language skills in Chinese schools to study at any university in the Philippines. In addition, every summer, he also sponsors Chinese language teachers from Chinese schools to come to China for short-term study.
"Only children can have their motherland in their hearts when they learn Chinese." Chen Yongzai often says this. Since 2001, he has sent hundreds of Filipino Chinese teenagers to Fujian to learn Chinese and Chinese culture every year. Tens of thousands of people have benefited from it over the past decade and has been rumored to be a talk between the two countries.
In 2011, Chen Yongzai donated 50 million yuan to Huaqiao University to build the "Chen Yankui Building" of the Chinese language education and training center, becoming the largest individual donation in the history of Huaqiao University's establishment. After completion, the total construction area of the Chen Yankui Building reaches 36,000 square meters, and can accommodate 500 Chinese teenagers to study and live together.
is located in Huaqiao University in Quanzhou. It is the only national university in China named "Overseas Chinese". The school currently has 4,627 overseas students from more than 70 countries and regions, of which the majority of them are overseas Chinese. As an important training base for Chinese language education for overseas Chinese, the School of Chinese Language and Culture of Huaqiao University currently has 1,275 overseas students and more than 2,000 short-term trainees each year. In the 15 years before 2012, there were only 5,000 short-term trainees.
China is entering a new era.
Today, in contrast to many Chinese teenagers who are keen on learning English and studying in Europe and the United States, there are many foreigners in the world who are rushing to China to learn Chinese. Faced with such new changes, whenever there is a chance, Chen Yongzai will remind young Chinese students to learn more Chinese and learn more about Chinese culture, so that they will have more opportunities in the workplace or business market in the future.
New Chinese people gathered in overseas Chinese
Li Weihan is a Chinese young man who seized this opportunity.
This young man born in 1994 has a name "Weihan" that holds ardent hope. "The name given by grandma. She hopes that I will become a great man and also hopes that I will remember the great Han people." Li Weihan told reporters.
When Li Weihan was born, his family had been moving from Xinhui, Guangdong and Quanzhou, Fujian to Indonesia for more than 60 years. Even if I have been away from my hometown for a hundred years, the older generation of Chinese still hopes that their descendants can remember the Chinese blood flowing in their bodies.
When I was a child, Li Weihan could only hear Minnan dialect and could not speak Mandarin. It was not until he was 18 that he began to learn consciously. As for what is useful for learning Mandarin, Li Weihan didn't know and never thought about it.
change started in 2016. Li Weihan came from Indonesia to the Chinese Language College of Huaqiao University to study for a bachelor's degree in Chinese education. The first thing he changed in the years he spent in China was his perception of China. In the past, the messages he received about China were either backward or unsafe, and after he came, he realized that this was not the case at all.
Every time he returns to Indonesia on holiday in recent years, he will share his stories in China with his family and friends, telling them what is the "real China", what is the "New Four Great Inventions", and what is the "Belt and Road". Last year, he followed the "Chinese Spark" practice group of the Chinese Academy of Culture to return to Bali, Indonesia for short-term teaching. This activity advocates that overseas Chinese students return to their home country to spread Chinese culture and tell Chinese stories. Through practice, Li Weihan has further clarified his future career direction.
"After graduation, I want to continue to study for graduate school, and then return to Indonesia to be a Chinese teacher. There is now a shortage of Chinese teachers in Indonesia, and I think I have this advantage to do this job well."
rushing to the future to realize the overseas Chinese dream
Like Li Weihan, the connection between the new generation of Chinese and China and their hometown is no longer about leaving and longing, but about opportunities and win-win results.
html More than 130 years ago, Chen Yongzai seemed to have foresaw this day. His vigorous promotion of Chinese education seems more like a kind of vision today."Some people say that the new generation of overseas Chinese have become weaker than their fathers and ancestors. I don't think so.In fact, overseas Chinese have never been so closely linked to the development of their motherland as they are today. "Handle Jia Yimin, former president of Huaqiao University and dean of the Chinese Education Institute, said. In his opinion, a series of development concepts of China entering a new historical period, such as the "two centenary" goals and the construction of the "Belt and Road" have provided unlimited opportunities, broad world and bright prospects for the new generation of overseas Chinese.
Quanzhou, an old overseas Chinese hometown, which has maintained close contact with overseas villagers for a long time, has also keenly aware of the profound changes brought about by the new era and has quickly adjusted its service concept to overseas Chinese. How to adjust? It is to explain the future prospects to overseas Chinese, their advantages, and everyone’s win-win situations.
In 2010, Quanzhou established the "World Quanzhou Youth Association", and more than 360 new generations of Chinese from Quan from more than 30 countries and regions have joined. Since its establishment, in order to promote win-win cooperation, the Association has held many summit forums and investment lectures, and has organized more than 10 groups to promote it in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia , the United Arab Emirates and other countries, and has promoted it, promoting the implementation of multiple cooperation projects. "We will make every effort to create the best investment environment so that everyone can invest and start businesses here, with not only flowers and applause, but also profits and prospects." In June 2017, the head of the United Front Work Department of the Jinjiang Municipal Party Committee of Quanzhou introduced the visiting delegation of the Philippines Federation of All Circles.
In 2017, Quanzhou's total economic output exceeded 750 billion yuan, ranking first in Fujian Province for 19 consecutive years. After 40 years of reform and opening up, Jinjiang has also ranked among the top 100 counties in the country for 17 consecutive years, with a total economic output exceeding the 100 billion mark. Today, we can no longer imagine how Dong Liuxuan left Jinjiang and fled to Luzon Island more than 1,000 years ago. Also, we can hardly imagine what hardships Chen Yongzai went through to arrive in the Philippines 60 years ago. Today, the airport in Quanzhou Jinjiang has 42 flights per week to and from Manila . The dense air routes carry more young faces to and from both places, walking non-stop.
