Returning to their roots

Editor's note: In this weekly feature China Daily gives voice to Asia and its people. The stories presented come mainly from the Asia News Network (ANN), of which China Daily is among its 20 leading titles.

Uncertainty is common among Singaporeans venturing to China in search of their roots, or xun gen, as the process is known among overseas Chinese people.

But as China progressed from one of the world's less developed nations to the second-largest economy, the lives of its people were transformed — along with their relationships with descendants of overseas Chinese, especially those in Southeast Asia.

Since China opened up in 1978, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty, reducing global poverty by 75 percent, according to World Bank standards.

Its gross domestic product exceeded 100 trillion yuan ($14.54 trillion) in 2020, with national per capita disposable income reaching 32,189 yuan — doubling since 2010.

These changes are felt most keenly not in statistics, but when overseas Chinese return to meet relatives they barely know.

Earlier generations of overseas Chinese in Singapore typically sent money, daily necessities and letters to their relatives in China — a tradition often passed down for at least one generation.

They also organized fundraising activities to build basic infrastructure, such as schools, roads and temples, for their ancestral villages or helped new immigrants from their hometowns settle in Singapore.

Clan associations — based on hometowns, surnames or dialect groups — were formed to act as a bridge across borders.

Some associations organized trips from Singapore to China, a tradition that continues to this day.

Francis Phua, deputy secretary-general at the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations, or SFCCA, which has close to 230 members, said: "Overseas Chinese in Singapore (in the past) would think about returning home to China one day, or what is known as luo ye gui gen."

The proverb describes fallen leaves returning to their roots.

Waves of Chinese Singaporeans started visiting China to xun gen in the 1980s, during China's earliest years of opening up.

In the past, common gifts to bring back to China included money, lard and rice, said Or Teck Seng, chairman of the Nanyang Hwu Clan General Association in Singapore.

Or himself dug into his savings and sold one of his condominium units in Singapore to finance the rebuilding of his ancestral home in Anxi county in Fujian. The 68-year-old vice-president of an engineering company has taken on five such rebuilding projects, comprising four ancestral houses and a temple.