Zhang Zhaohong: The mystery of the tombstones in the "Alberta Chinese History and Culture Grand View Garden" (3)

Zhang Zhaohong: The tombstone mystery in the "Alberta Chinese History and Culture Grand View Garden" (3) Phoenix Zhang Zhaohong A tombstone of an overseas Chinese ancestor, an unsolved mystery...

Phoenix City Zhang Zhaohong A tombstone of an overseas Chinese ancestor, an unsolved mystery, reveals the style of Chikan Ancient Town in Kaiping, China.

The only Chinese tombstone in the "Ancestors and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery" is engraved with: "Grave of Deng Xiangyuan, a resident of Kaiping Tower Village". In order to understand the message contained in it, we divided the inscriptions into: Kaiping, Dalou Villager, Deng Xiangyuan, and Tomb, and then analyzed them one by one.

>Deng Xiangyuan’s ancestor came from Kaiping. Kaiping is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in China, located in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong. The city is divided into three areas: Changsha, Xinchang and Dihai by the Tanjiang River, so it is also called the "Three Ports". There are nearly one million people living in Kaiping overseas, in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, distributed in 68 countries and regions, so there are two versions of Kaiping in the world. There are many celebrities in Kaiping, such as Lee Guowei, general manager of Hong Kong Hang Seng Bank; famous Cantonese opera artist Hongxian Nu; Hong Kong artists Guan Dexing, Chow Yun-fat, Qi Meizhen and so on. In the United States, there is TV chef Zhen Wenda; in Alberta, there is the first Chinese in the United States to participate in politics, Arizona State Representative Deng Yuening; Justice Deng Xinping, and former Mesa Mayor Deng Weili, etc.

In the era of Deng Xiangyuan more than a hundred years ago, Kaiping was still a small county, with the center in what is now Chikan Town. Chikan Town has a history of about 350 years. It is 12 kilometers away from the current city center of Kaiping. Historically, Chikan Town was the seat of Kaiping County. It was later moved to Sanbu Town, which is now the urban area of ​​Kaiping.

Chikan Town was originally divided from Xinhui County. Since the Tanjiang River surrounds Chikan Town, waterway transportation is quite developed. According to town records, there was a water crossing dock in Chikan in 1676. Although its history is not as long as other famous ancient towns in China such as Zhouzhuang, Wuzhen, Zhuxian, Huangyao, etc., Chikan Town has a unique combination of Chinese and Western features, so it is known as "China's fifth ancient town". There are 1,833 watchtowers in Kaiping. The "Yinglong Tower" watchtower in Sanmenli, Chikan Town, was built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and has a long history. The watchtowers and villages have been rated as one of the world cultural heritage sites by UNESCO.

In the late Qing Dynasty, Chikan Ancient Town covered an area of ​​three square kilometers and had more than 40,000 residents. During the Republic of China, about 5,000 to 6,000 people settled here for a long time. In the third year of Guangxu's reign (1877), Pastor Xinwen of the American Presbyterian Church came to Chikan, and with the help of returned overseas Chinese, he founded a Presbyterian chapel. In the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897), returned overseas Chinese Guan Zhenren and Guan Maolong also founded the Christian Methodist Church in Chikan.

Chikan Town has the famous "European Style Street". The arcades in the Lingnan area are very common in the town. The six-mile-long arcade street has 600 houses and was built along the river by returned overseas Chinese in the 1920s. It is said that after the old overseas Chinese returned to their hometowns in fine clothes, they used crutches to gesticulate and brought back certain impressions or architectural drawings about the West, and then integrated them with local traditional architectural styles to build a number of buildings that combined Chinese and Western styles. These exquisite buildings retain the traditional style of carved flower windows and archways, and are mixed with traces of Western architecture such as Roman columns, arched windows, and reliefs. They have become a beautiful scenery in the ancient town of Chikan.

In the prosperous golden age, many buildings on Chikan Old Street only had residents on the ground floor, while the upper floors had closed windows. It turned out that the owners were overseas, and the ground floor was occupied by distant relatives who were looking at the property or tenants who rented the property. Most of these posters are "Jin Shan Bo". In the mid-19th century, gold mines were discovered in California, USA. Later, railways were built and rivers were dug. Many local farmers in Kaiping responded to the recruitment.

Back then, going to the United States to go gold hunting was called “going to Jinshan” or “going to Citigroup”. These people who went abroad were called "Jin Shanbo" by the Chikan people. In the 1920s, the "Jin Shanbo" people went through untold hardships, saved a few money, and returned to their hometown to fulfill their dreams of "fields, gardens, huts, and tombs." There were many overseas Chinese relatives in Chikan's countryside, and overseas remittances flowed smoothly, so business began to prosper. At that time, Western civilization was also introduced rapidly, and in 1914, a small steamer sailed to Chikan. Ten years later, there was also the first convertible car made by the American Ford Company. In the 1940s, it was home to telephone, telegraph and automobile companies.

In the prosperous era of Chikan, there were many gold shops, cloth shops and pawnshops. There are 17 large-scale teahouses and taverns opened along the coast. Among them, the financial industry, banks, and gold and silver shops are prosperous. Businessmen from other places come and go, opium dens and gambling houses have sprung up one after another. There are six brothels including Tianxiang Tower in a short street, which is prosperous and luxurious. Because there are many overseas Chinese, advanced Western medicine has been established in Chikan as early as the early years of the Republic of China. When Chikan was prosperous, there was a "Doctor Street", and many doctors were from famous medical universities. Most of the busy roads are clinics and various pharmacies.

> Chikan Town has a prosperous literary style. The most peculiar sight at that time was that there were two public libraries in a small place. The origin is that there are two big families in the town. The Hedong District is from the Situ clan and comes from Handan, Hebei. Hexi is a member of the Guan clan, from Fujian. After years of development, the two tribes have become prominent families, and as they develop, the two families also begin to fight openly and secretly. In 1920, the Situ people opened a reading room, and in 1925, the library building was completed on the east embankment of the Tanjiang River. The overseas and local Situ families raised more than 40,000 silver yuan and hired a famous construction company to build a three-story reinforced concrete building. The next year, Situ Kunzhong, who was living in Canada, donated money to build a bell tower on the top of the building and bought back the famous Boston clock in the United States. The big clock can run for a week once it is wound. The loud and distant sound of the bell shocked the people of the Guan family. Not to be outdone, the Guan family established a library preparatory committee the next year and selected Hong Kong-funded construction companies and high-quality materials to build it. In less than five years, the Guan family library also stood on the Chikan Shangbu Embankment. On the bank of the West River, while the Situ Library has a collection of masterpieces, the Guan Library also spent a lot of money to purchase three masterpieces: "Sikuquanshu", "Wanyou Library", and "Twenty-Four Histories". It also specially purchased a large German clock to compete with Situ's American clock. At that time, when people were accustomed to watching the sunrise and sunset, the two big bells rang at the same time, which greatly facilitated the local residents and became a legend in the southern water town.

uses a lot of information to introduce Chikan Ancient Town in Kaiping, because the prosperity of Chikan Ancient Town over the past century is inseparable from the early people who went abroad to make money, build railways, build farms, dig for water conservancy, do laundry, and open restaurants. The ancestors of the overseas Chinese endured hardships in foreign lands, suffered hardships, sweated blood, and even sacrificed their lives. They worked hard, accepted the odds, lived frugally, and took the hard-earned money back to their hometowns to support their wives and children, engage in construction, and do charity. It can be said that without overseas Chinese, Kaiping would not be as prosperous as it is today. In addition, the overseas Chinese in Kaiping have also brought the virtues of hard work, intelligence, customs and people of their hometown overseas. Without their hometown of Kaiping, the overseas Chinese will lose their roots, focus and care, and even the dreams of their hometown will be shattered. The hometown of Kaiping and overseas Chinese are closely related, sharing weal and woe. Only with the peace and prosperity of our ancestral home can overseas Chinese feel truly stable and proud.

In Chikan Ancient Town, Kaiping, the Situ and Guan surnames are prominent families, but in the surrounding villages, there are other famous families such as the Deng family, the Zhen family, and the Zhang family. At that time, most of the people who came to the United States from Kaiping were farmers from various villages in Kaiping. There were also a large number of immigrants who immigrated to Phoenix, Alberta, and most of them had the surname Deng. However, there is currently a lack of information about the "Tombstone Village" mentioned in the inscription. However, in the process of searching, we unexpectedly found the reasons and circumstances of why many overseas Chinese hometowns today have gone from prosperity to decline. We will continue to look for ways to solve the "tombstone mystery". (To be continued, the article is serialized in "Phoenix Art and Literature Network" http://www.paaca.us)

There are more than 1,800 watchtowers in Kaiping

The old rural style of Chikan, Kaiping

Mayor Deng Weili, whose ancestral home is Chikan, led a delegation back to Kaiping, Guangdong to establish sister cities (1994)