Liu Denghan 刘登翰, Yige huaqiao jiazu de ceying 一个华侨家族的侧影 (Sidelights on an Overseas Chinese Family). Huaqiao xiang yuanfei de fengzheng, you yitiao kanbujian de xixi de sixian jiang tamen xizai mutu de da shushang 华侨,像远飞的风筝,有一条看不见的细细的丝线将他们系在母土的大树上 (Overseas Chinese, like kites flying far away, have a thin, invisible thread tying them to the great tree of their motherland). Fuzhou, Haixia wenyi chubanshe, prefaces by Xie Mian 谢冕 and Hong Zicheng 洪子诚, 2023, 165 p. ISBN: 978-7-5550-3335-6
Liu Denghan 刘登翰, Yige huaqiao jiazu de ceying 一个华侨家族的侧影 (Sidelights on an Overseas Chinese Family). Huaqiao xiang yuanfei de fengzheng, you yitiao kanbujian de xixi de sixian jiang tamen xizai mutu de da shushang 华侨,像远飞的风筝,有一条看不见的细细的丝线将他们系在母土的大树上 (Overseas Chinese, like kites flying far away, have a thin, invisible thread tying them to the great tree of their motherland). Fuzhou, Haixia wenyi chubanshe, prefaces by Xie Mian 谢冕 and Hong Zicheng 洪子诚, 2023, 165 p. ISBN: 978-7-5550-3335-6
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1In Archipel 105 (pp. 177–179) we presented a study by Liu Denghan on the Guofan ge 过番歌, or Songs of the Going Abroad which were designed to discourage Chinese men from going overseas to work as coolies. This time, the author offers us a more personal work that is altogether a history of his family, both near and far, and even more a spiritual history or xinling shi 心灵史.
2Liu Denghan was born into an Overseas Chinese family that has existed for generations. Having reached an advanced age, he felt the need to reflect on his own life and the history of his family. Relying on his vivid memory and on private documents such as genealogies, ancestral temples, family photos, old letters, and information provided by relatives in China and the Philippines, Liu embarked on his quest for the past. To understand his relentless quest, it is important to realise that being an Overseas Chinese is not easy. In China the concept of qiao 侨 or living abroad is used to define a political identity within the nation that never leaves you. You are either huaqiao 华侨 or expatriate, qiaojuan 侨眷 or relative of Overseas Chinese, guiqiao 归侨 or returned Overseas Chinese. Depending on the political situation in China, the status of qiao can be positive but also very negative as was for instance the case during the Cultural Revolution. Apart from a few famous Overseas Chinese who have made great achievements, their destiny is generally not easy.
3Speaking of himself Liu says that since he was a child, he had experienced all kinds of reunions and separations, joys and sorrows of Overseas Chinese families. When he reached the age when he was supposed to go abroad, he was lucky enough to go to Beijing to study and work, but he could not escape the shadow of “Overseas Chinese”. It was only after twenty years of exile in the mountainous regions of Fujian that he was able to renew the academic opportunities. It was only after retirement that he could return to his hometown Xiamen.
4This book is divided into two parts: the first part, Huaqiao jiashi 华侨家世 “Overseas Chinese Family History,” is about his family; the second part, Xiamen wangshi 厦门往事 “Xiamen Past,” is about his family’s living environment after moving to Xiamen from Nan’an 南安 a hundred years ago. In this part he also uses the stories of others to express his own heart. In particular his account on Gulangyu Overseas Chinese International Cultivation Farm of Subtropical Plants founded on the initiative of Overseas Chinese (pp. 147‒162). In the epilogue (pp. 163‒165), the author explains how he compiled his collection of essays.
5The ancestors of the Liu family (who then bore the surname of Hou 侯) arrived in Fujian during the Tang dynasty, a branch of which settled in present-day Nan’an, but our author, lacking documents, is mainly interested in those who emigrated to the Philippines in the 19th century and beyond.
- 1 Another member of the Liu clan from Nan’an, Liu Hengfu 刘亨赙, Filipino name José Ignacio Paua (1870‒1 (...)
6The first person to be remembered (thanks to a brief personal account included in the genealogy) was Chengyang gong 澄洋公 (1837‒1893), a scholar born in 1837 who, on the orders his father, went to the Philippines in 1857 where he set up a successful business. He brought his Filipino wife back to Xiamen where his father had established a new family home.1 Liu Denghan’s grandfather, Chenxi 箴西 (b. 1891), travelled to the Philippines at a very young age. He started a successful business, which he had to abandon with the Japanese occupation. He returned to Gulangyu 鼓浪屿, a small island adjoining Xiamen, where he died in 1946. Denghan’s father Ruzong 儒宗 (1915‒1963) settled in Mindanao, where he died of illness. Of these migrants, only one of the author’s uncles was highly educated and worked as a teacher in a Chinese school. The author goes on to analyse the role of women in these migrant families through the portrait of his Western-educated mother, for whom he has great admiration (母亲是一座山, Mother is a mountain, pp. 45‒66). The final chapter is a sort of panorama of the extended family as the author has perceived it over the years.
7The various essays in the second part are largely based on the author’s own memories and highlight his connections with Xiamen and Gulangyu. The first two recall the Lujiang River 鹭江 and the defunct port of Shapowei 沙坡尾, from which migrants used to depart. The third depicts Gulangyu, where foreigners lived and wealthy Chinese from the diaspora had built luxurious villas. Two deal with literature. One is about how the author was suddenly confronted with the guofan ge and how this quest brought his family’s past back to life.
8In short, this is an extraordinary approach to how Overseas Chinese families experience their identity within the nation and how, depending on the circumstances, they maintain links with members who have gone abroad and their families.
Notes
1 Another member of the Liu clan from Nan’an, Liu Hengfu 刘亨赙, Filipino name José Ignacio Paua (1870‒1926), who is mentioned by the author (p. 10) deserved to be mentioned here (although he is not directly linked to Liu Denghan’s close family). Liu Hengfu joined the Katipunan, a secret society that spearheaded the 1896 Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire. He later served in the Philippine Revolutionary Army under General Emilio Aguinaldo, the first Philippine president.
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Référence papier
Claudine Salmon, « Liu Denghan 刘登翰, Yige huaqiao jiazu de ceying 一个华侨家族的侧影 (Sidelights on an Overseas Chinese Family). Huaqiao xiang yuanfei de fengzheng, you yitiao kanbujian de xixi de sixian jiang tamen xizai mutu de da shushang 华侨,像远飞的风筝,有一条看不见的细细的丝线将他们系在母土的大树上 (Overseas Chinese, like kites flying far away, have a thin, invisible thread tying them to the great tree of their motherland). Fuzhou, Haixia wenyi chubanshe, prefaces by Xie Mian 谢冕 and Hong Zicheng 洪子诚, 2023, 165 p. ISBN: 978-7-5550-3335-6 », Archipel, 109 | 2025, 300-302.
Référence électronique
Claudine Salmon, « Liu Denghan 刘登翰, Yige huaqiao jiazu de ceying 一个华侨家族的侧影 (Sidelights on an Overseas Chinese Family). Huaqiao xiang yuanfei de fengzheng, you yitiao kanbujian de xixi de sixian jiang tamen xizai mutu de da shushang 华侨,像远飞的风筝,有一条看不见的细细的丝线将他们系在母土的大树上 (Overseas Chinese, like kites flying far away, have a thin, invisible thread tying them to the great tree of their motherland). Fuzhou, Haixia wenyi chubanshe, prefaces by Xie Mian 谢冕 and Hong Zicheng 洪子诚, 2023, 165 p. ISBN: 978-7-5550-3335-6 », Archipel [En ligne], 109 | 2025, mis en ligne le 25 mai 2025, consulté le 17 juillet 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/8076 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/144xi
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