A Trip to
My Ancestor Village
Jonathan Teoh
posted to HGN in April 1995
My ancestor
village is Shong(up) Chuan(as in Sze-"Chuan" province) Chun(village),
located in Western Fukien, Yong Ding county. Yong Ding county is one of the
8 pure hakka-speaking counties in Fujian. It is also one of the 20 counties
that are considered as the Hakka baseline culture.
My ancestors have spent 20 plus generations in that village. All the people
there have only one last name, long bow(Teoh, Chang, Chong, Zhang). The boys
have to marry girls from other villages and all the girls will marry to other
villages. The population of the village is about 2,000 people.
There are 3 huge round buildings, and 2 huge rectangle buildings in the village,
the rest are small houses. It is about 4 storey high. In the evening, little
kids playing in front of the round building, cool breeze of air, sun setting,
sound of river rushing, and in the midst of these, groups of teenage boys and
girls shouldering two pails of water with a stick, coming in and out of the
round building, just like the stuff you see in the movie. There is a spring
water and a river supplying water for the entire village. Wood sticks were piled
up around the Round Building, used as the fuels for cooking.
I spent a night in one of the rooms. It is a rather small room by today's standard.
When I was there, it was still the Chinese New Year celebration period(they
celebrate from 1st to 15th), so at night, I canl hear the drum beat for about
half an hour to create the New Year atmosphere.
In the morning, I stood at higher levels and looked around the round building,
the smoke streams were raising from the kitchens with chicken cocking in the
background. The boys and girls are active once again while adults go out to
tilt the land or repair the land for next round of cultivation. Along the river
bank, there are girls washing the clothing, younger ones tend to group together,
chit-chat while washing, the elder ones tend to scatter a bit.
Some round buildings are clean but the one in my village is dirty. People use
the central area of the Round Building to raise pigs and chickens. One of the
relatives actually complained to me that they should not raise pigs and chicken
inside the Round Building.
Usually in a village, there is an ancestor hall. In front of the ancestor hall,
there are tall pillars raised. The pillars are of two types, Wen pillars and
Wu pillars. The Wen pillars are for those who have reached high education level
or become famous scholars. The Wu pillars are for those who have obtained official
position in the military. Thus a village can "boast" of its accomplishment
by counting the number of pillars in front of the Ancestor Hall. Unfortunately
in my villages they were all torn down during cultural revolution.
When a child is born, the name of the child is written in the red paper and
sticked to the walls of the ancestor hall to "announce" to the ancestors,
officially, of the child's birth. My ancestor hall was once turned into the
"revolutionary" factory. I visited another village, the ancestor village
of Hu Wen Hu3(tiger), they have impressive pillars and ancestor hall; However,
my relative told me that my village's pillars were more impressive than "theirs"
if the our pillars were still around today.
Ancestor's graves were built around the villages. On the first day of Chinese
New Year, the entire villagers will gather around the grand ancestor grave(usually
the one that started the settlement in that area), and lighted the fire-cracker.
There are drum beating, and incense burning and the sacrifice of five animals.
As the villagers "marched" towards the grave there is a banner carrier
in front of the march with the drum beating and the gong.
I also noticed that people were making lantern and hanged in front of the doors
or windows. They were preparing the celebration of Yen Shiao(15th day of Chinese
New Year). On the 15th day of Chinese New Year(1995) , in my village, people
gathered in front of ancestor hall at night with the lanterns, and they matched
through the entire village, like a lantern parade. This occasion also marked
the end of Chinese New Year celebration. This is the first time in my life,
I understand the meaning of Chinese New Year, it is meant to be celebrated throughout
15 day period, and it is truly a celebration of Spring coming communitywide,
not a personal or family two-day vacation.
As I leave the villages from the mountains towards the plains of the coastal
area of Xiamen, I have a sense of dignity, I have "found" myself and
at peace in heart. At the same time, I realize the critical moment Hakka culture
is facing. Hakka culture is caught in between the two striving cultures, Kwangtung
and Fukien. On top of this, the government policy of teaching Mandarin is eroding
Hakka consciousness, the input of "modern" culture is also rocking
this traditionally mountaineous Hakka strongholds. While every culture is dynamic
and evolves, it should n