Qi Ruhong: The location of He Sheng Tang

Qi Ru Hong: The location of He Sheng Tang On Monday, April 9th last week, the Phoenix branch of Hesheng Church in the United States held an inauguration ceremony. In the evening, a banquet was held to entertain guests at the Fengcheng Restaurant in Chandelier City...

On Monday, April 9th last week, the Phoenix branch of Heshengtang Church in the United States held an inauguration ceremony. In the evening, a banquet was held at the Fengcheng Restaurant in Chandelier City to entertain guests. It can be regarded as the finale party for the Arizona overseas Chinese community to celebrate the Lunar New Year. It condensed the joyful atmosphere into an extraordinary event. The dinner included speeches by the host and distinguished guests as usual, and a succession of exciting activities. From the beginning to the end, with the dancing of the He Sheng Lion Dance, the dulcimer playing by musician Huang Pei, the stunts of the San Francisco face-changing artist, the patriotic overseas Chinese singing "Ode to the Republic of China", and the call for a lucky draw, the rich program made the entire banquet full of excitement and joy.

I am ignorant, have limited knowledge, and do not know much about Hop Sheng Hall. This time, I was invited by Fang Huixian, the president of the American Overseas Chinese Newspaper, and I was lucky enough to accompany the last seat, so I learned a lot about the general situation. It turns out that Hop Sing Tong is an overseas Chinese organization with a long history in the United States. It has strong strength, unites overseas Chinese, helps and cooperates with each other, maintains amity and good neighborliness, and never forgets its good deeds to benefit the community. This time, we are able to call on the elders, heads and representatives of the main churches and branch churches across the United States to come to Phoenix to host the celebration. It is truly courageous. We also invite Liao Jianxun, the deputy director of the Cultural Office of the Republic of China in Los Angeles, to come and give guidance. At the same time, representatives of the overseas Chinese community and social sages in Phoenix are also invited to attend, celebrate together, and gather together. It reflects the majestic team spirit and united efforts. It is worthy of praise and reference.

The grand event at Hop Sheng Hall that night has been reported in detail in newspapers and on the Internet, with pictures and texts, so there is no need to elaborate here. What I am going to talk about is what caught my attention the most and aroused my curiosity the most. The Spanish-American Overseas Chinese Newspaper reported on the cities where several branch churches are located. Four of them, "Bolun, Shilu, Meiliyun, and Danfo", are completely unfamiliar to me and feel very strange. I have been living in the United States for twenty years. Although I don’t understand English, my Chinese is very fluent. I know the translations of many places in the United States. For example, Phoenix is Phoenix and Phoenix, San Francisco is San Francisco, Los Angeles is Los Angeles, Honolulu is Honolulu, and a friend of Dallas calls it Dali City. Pang and so on, I know a lot, but I have never heard of these four areas. I only made a brief search and found that three of them have different transliterations. Bolun is also called Bolun, Meiliyun is also called Meiliyun, and Danfo is also called Dianhua. It makes me as confused as Zhangba Jingangzao. Generally speaking, these three names are more unfamiliar and have never been heard of. What is strange is that now that Chinese is very popular, news reports and electronic network dissemination almost all use the new translations that are commonly used. Why do some overseas Chinese not change their style and still prefer the old translations?

In this confused situation, I was like a detective investigating the matter, conducting a thorough investigation to seek answers. Fortunately, the modern Internet is developed and information is unobstructed. Many netizens like to upload information. Just press a button to search, allusions from ancient and modern times, astronomy and geography in the universe, and changes in the behavior of the world can be quickly displayed, which is extremely convenient. In the past era, we did not have the opportunity to enjoy this kind of blessing. We had to slowly track down everywhere and spend all our efforts, but we may not get the results. It seems that on this occasion, I asked several people, and they all shook their heads and waved their hands like myself. The closest one could only point out that "Denfo should be Denver", and I didn't know the rest.

I was unwilling to give up and persevered, and finally found the results online: Portland or Portland is Portland, Oregon, Shilu is Seattle, Washington, Denver or Dianhua is Denver, Colorado. Among them, Merrion or Merrion is the most difficult to find. It is not a famous city or big port, and I don’t know where it is. After repeatedly checking the relevant information , only then did I know that it belongs to the state of California. Then I searched on the map of California and saw that it is a city not far from the capital of Gaza Burma. It is called Marysvill in English. It was a famous gold mining town a century ago. At that time, there were about 6,000 Chinese people. No wonder Hop Sheng Church established a branch there very early. According to the data, Hop Sheng Church now gathers there every year to hold a small annual meeting!

>Oh! I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I got to know several cities where Hop Sheng Hall is located, and I learned that those American cities have Chinese translations. It was very interesting to compare the old and new, which broadened my knowledge. I realized that my knowledge was so poor. Although I have been in the United States for 20 years, and even though I am nearly 80 years old, I still don’t know the names of many places. No wonder some people say that you should learn as you live!