Rambling around my ancestral Hainan

Charlie Soong and his eminent Soong daughters

 

Returning to 203 Provincial Road, my wife and I head north for the ancestral home of the famous Soong sisters.  We are excited because we have read books about them.  The house is the birthplace of their father Han Jiao Zhun, better known as Charlie Soong.  “Charles Soon” was the anglicized version of his given name “Jiaozhun”, adopted after his conversion by Methodist missionaries in America, where he had gone at the age of twelve.  The “g” in “Soong” was added later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie Soong (Han Jiaozhun; 韓教準), father of the famous Soong sisters
宋嘉树 (韩教准), 著名的宋氏姐妹的父亲
 


Two kilometres before hitting the suburban town of Changsa, our car turns left into the long bitumen by-road to Charlie’s home.  Dense rows of tall trees on both sides mesmerise and transport my mind back one hundred and fifty years earlier.  This road was in all probability a sandy country track back then and the village was remote and populated by few families.  How did Jiaozhun the Hainanese country kid of nine draw the courage to leave the security of his close-knit family in an isolated village and accompany some relatives to a world that was alien to him, first to Java and then to the U.S.A.?  Passing through this narrow, fairly deserted modern road, I can now fully sense and appreciate his audacity and unyielding spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lane to Han Jiaozhun’s family home
小路到韩教准家

 

Born in 1866 according to Western records (which I am using, or 1863 in others), Han Jiaozhun was taken with his older brother to Java at the tender age of nine.  His three-year stay, apprenticed to an uncle, was an unhappy one; for he gladly accepted an offer to accompany another uncle to Boston.  After a year or so of menial work for his uncle, who rejected his plea for an education, the adventurous fourteen-year old teenager bravely became a stowaway in a cutter, despite his poor grasp of the English language.  

Jiaozhun led a charmed life; its captain was a practising Christian, who charitably employed him on deck and later introduced him to his fellow brethren.  Envisioning him as a native missionary to China, they became his benefactors.  He was baptized.  Soon a rich industrialist and philanthropist, Julian Carr, gladly opened his residence to the boy and wangled a favour from Trinity College (now Duke University) to matriculate him, despite his failure in fulfilling all entry requirements.  After a year, Jiaozhun transferred to Vanderbilt University, where he graduated with a theology degree in 1885.  The following year, he was delegated to Shanghai as planned.  

China was undergoing the throes of the dying Qing dynasty, debilitated by continuous wars sparked by opportunistic foreigners: the two Sino-British Opium Wars from 1839 to 1842 and from 1856 to 1860, and the Sino-French War of 1884-5.  The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 and the 1900 Boxer Rebellion would explode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu’s (林则徐) destruction of British opium cargoes
in 1839, China was invaded by the British, French, Germans, Japanese, etc, for 100 years
钦差大臣林则徐, 他破壞了英國鴉片貨物於1839年
后来, 英国，法国，德国，日本和其他人侵入中国100年

 
 
Twenty-year old Charlie was catapult into that fiery cauldron.  Missionary life was not easy, especially since he had started a family with his newly-wedded wife.  His first child (daughter Ai-ling) was born in 1888 and his second (daughter Qing-ling) in 1893.  He left to become a businessman, starting a small printing firm as well as engaging in clandestine activities against the Manchu government.  His third child (son Tse Ven; Ziwen) was born in 1894.  

Fate saw him meeting twenty-eight year old Sun Yat-sen during a Methodist church service in Shanghai in 1894.  The following year, the Guangdong-born Sun participated in a failed revolt in Guangzhou.  With a price on his head, he fled overseas, where he remained for sixteen years.  He spent much of his time in London, raising money for the republican cause.  When he first landed in London, he came under the surveillance of Qing secret agents, who later kidnapped and held him in the Chinese legation.  Fortuitously, his friends were alerted.  British political pressure and public furore forced the Qing government to release him.

Charlie Soong was safe; his role in the Guangzhou plot was unexposed.  His third daughter Mei-ling was born in 1897, followed by two sons, Tse Liang (Ziliang) and Tse An (Zi’an).  Knowing too well the benefits of a Western education, Charlie sent his three young daughters to Wesleyan College in Georgia, the eldest in 1903 and the other two in 1907.  After her graduation in 1909, Ai-ling returned home to a China ruled by three-year old Puyi, chosen by the Empress Dowager on her deathbed the previous year.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Charlie Soong and his family; Ai-ling, Qing-ling, Mei-ling (left to right)
韩教准和他的家人; 蔼龄, 庆龄, 美龄 (左到右)
 


Absent for several years, Sun Yat-sen too returned to China.  Through her father, Ai-ling became Sun’s secretary.  In 1911, the Qing dynasty was collapsing.  Representatives from provincial supporters made Sun the provisional President of the Republic of China.  To prevent the potential disintegration of the fragile republic by the actions of emerging provincial warlords, Sun and his followers, who controlled little military power, cut a deal with a dominant warlord, the recently ordained Qing prime minister.

Succeeding in effecting the abdication of the young emperor, General Yuan Shikai thus received the presidency of the republic in 1912.  Meanwhile, having completed her studies, Qing-ling also returned.  Power supremacy gradually unmasked the president’s latent ambition.  His autocracy surfaced.  The nascent republic faced a new threat, a dictator.  Sun and Song Jiaoren, a leading United League member, formed the KMT.  Widespread protests and opposition against Yuan sprout.  Life was perilous. 

The following year, after an unsuccessful revolt, Sun and the Soong family fled to Japan.  When Ai-ling married Bank of China director Kung Hsiang Hsi (Kong Xiangxi), Qing-ling became Sun’s secretary.  Young and fresh from college, she soon fell for the charismatic revolutionary.  By the end of 1915, Yuan declared himself Emperor.  Three months later, he died, sparing China from a regression into the feudal age. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patriot Soong Qingling with Sun Yat-sen
爱国者宋庆龄与孙中山

 

Safe from persecution, the Soong family returned to China.  Despite her father’s objection, Qing-ling subsequently embarked on a journey to rejoin Sun.  Although she was initially disowned by her father, their relationship was later restored through the siblings’ intervention.  But Charlie’s ties with his married friend remained severed.  Without an effective central government, military leaders once again manoeuvred to carve out their tufts.  China seemed doomed to political disintegration and self-destruction.  To reunify the country, Sun returned in 1917.  Charlie died the following year, aged fifty-two (or fifty-four), and was buried in Shanghai.

Sun speedily established a military government in Guangzhou to recapture the rest of the country.  He was supported by Tse Ven (T.V.).  His death in 1925, however, led to a struggle among the factions for control of the KMT, in which Chiang Kai-shek emerged the winner the following year.  Chiang married Mei-ling in 1927, and Tse Ven served as his Nationalist Government’s Finance Minister from 1928 to 1933 (and also acting premier from 1932 to 1933) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1941 to 1945 (and concurrently as deputy premier from December 1944). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soong Qing-ling, Honorary President of China
宋庆龄, 中国名誉主席

 

After the post-war civil conflict, their families fled to Taiwan while Qing-ling remained in mainland China.  Later feted as Honorary President of the People’s Republic, the widely-adored widow of Sun died in 1981. 

Siblings who had studied at the same college at the same time stood on opposing sides of a long civil war.  Little did they or father Charlie anticipate such a cruel fate.  I ruminate over the strange twist of events that engulfed them, as I pay the modest admission fee of 15 RMB and wander around the cultural park created and funded by the government during the nineteen-nineties.  Charlie’s ancestral house is still well-preserved.  The garden is well-designed and spacious.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie Soong cultural park in Wenchang, well-designed and spacious
宋嘉树文化公园在文昌, 精心设计和宽敞

 

A small tree perks my interest.  The white marble tablet reads: “石栗生态园  Castanea mollissima tree (candlenut tree) ecological plantation”.  A candlenut tree?  Grounded candlenuts are used in Southeast Asian cuisine.  Can candlenut trees be cultivated in southern China, especially Hainan?  Yes, I later find out.  But, alas, after making another check, I am left perplexed.  A “Castanea mollissima tree” is a chestnut tree, not a candlenut tree.  Chestnut trees are propagated in mainland China.  Has the wrong Latin name been imprinted?

About twenty kilometres from Wenchang town, this cultural park is not crowded on weekdays like today, except during the school holiday.  But this may change when the space launch centre is functioning around 2015 and a museum built.  Pei Partnership Architects is integrating into the extant park the first museum in China to commemorate “the legacy of Charlie Soong and his six children and their spouses”.  This consultancy was founded by Chien Chung and Li Chung Pei, the sons of internationally-renowned Chinese-American I.M. Pei (Ieoh Ming Pei).  The “high priority project” was approved by the Central Government.

Until he left home, Charlie Soong and his older brother grew up within a walled compound that is compact, measuring - in my estimation - about twenty-two metres in length and ten metres in breadth; for his father Han Hongyi, who died in 1893, owned a piece of land that is only 1.2 mu (a fifth of an acre) in size.  In that small compound are two main residential buildings, whose walls form part of the compound’s perimeter wall.  Each building is small, about ten metres in length and six metres in breadth, and has two small bedrooms.  The building in the middle of the compound has two doors (the entrance and exit) while the other in the rear has only one door, the entrance-cum-exit.  The smaller side buildings are tool sheds and kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie Soong’s family home is small; his father is not rich
宋嘉树的家是小; 他的父亲并不富裕

 

Immediately, the size of the family compound and distance - more than ten kilometres as the crow flies - from Qinglan Bay suggest in my mind a relatively poor man, despite Sterling Seagrave’s exaggerated claim in his book The Soong Dynasty that Han Hongyi was a “prosperous merchant, boat builder, secret society elder, and smuggler” at the port.  Laura Tyson Li hits the mark when she says that Charlie’s father “worked on the docks” there during farming off-peak seasons.  

Charlie was born in a rear bedroom that is small, about three and a half metres in length and two metres in width.  It is also windowless.  When the door is shut, it is dark and unventilated.  A sign tells us that this is the room he was born in.  The other rooms are similar.  Without headrests, the beds are basic and purely functional, made of hardwood planks nailed together and without any form of decoration.  They are typically found in any peasant’s household.  Protecting the human bodies from being accidentally impaled by splinters from the wooden beds are the thin “mattresses”, covers of matted coconut leaves that will also keep the bodies warm at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie Soong was born in a small room
宋嘉树出生在一个小房间

 

As we walk around Charlie’s ancestral house, we do not find it to be exceptional.  The hall is about three metres by four metres, just sufficient space to accommodate the small square dining table in the middle and the eight chairs placed against the two longer walls and, if they are rich enough, also a dining room cabinet.  A large wooden plaque nailed onto the rear house wall, which faces the door, briefly traces the ancestry of Charlie to a Han Xian Qing, the “Satrap” (太守; taishou) of Lianzhou.  The prefect, or regional inspector, moved to Hainan in 1197 during the reign of Southern Song emperor Ningzong, five decades after the death of exiled Zhao Ding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Charlie Soong’s ancestor moved to Hainan in 1197
宋嘉树的祖先搬到海南在公元1197

 

Curiosity nudges me to scrutinize the names of Charlie Soong’s descendants.  Laurette Soong, a daughter of T.V. Soong, is married to Ivan Y.T. Feng.  “Feng”: my eyes then focus on its Chinese character.  It is identical to mine.  Is he a descendant of emperor Feng Ba or Feng Hong?  Is he a descendant of Feng Bao and Lady Xian?  I silently ponder.  If he is, then a descendant of the Northern Yan emperor is married to a descendant of the notable Charlie Soong.  That makes for an interesting after-dinner conversation.  Tse Ven was the former Premier of China while Feng Tzecheng, the groom’s father, was the Chinese Ambassador to Mexico in 1952.

Exiting the walled compound, I notice a white marble slab embedded on a granite base.  On it are engraved English words in red.  I draw closer.  They say that the Japanese soldiers, who captured Charlie’s village in 1941, wrote in pulverized lime “Song Ziwen’s house” on the greyish external brick wall.  Their victorious warning to the KMT adherents has since faded through the passage of time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japanese warning against former Chinese premier Soong Ziwen (宋子文; Soong Tse Ven)
日本警告中国前总理宋子文

 

Nearby is a small shelter harbouring a millstone.  Here, I surmise, is where the Han family pounds and separate the husks from the rice grains and also grind their rice grains into flour.  A few metres away, some of Charlie’s ancestors laid buried, shaded by the dense clumps of leafy tropical trees.  

A huge white marble bust of a smiling round-faced Qing-ling in her seventies stands conspicuously on a square pedestal about 1.6 metres in height before a flight of steps leading to the Soong Exhibition Halls.  In the courtyard is a similar but smaller bust of her husband Sun Yat-sen.  In the halls are photographs and newspaper cuttings of the notable events in the lives of the Soongs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wenchang Charlie Soong cultural park:  Song Qing-ling
文昌宋嘉树文化公园:   宋庆龄

 

Near the car park is also the inescapable white marble bust of Charlie Soong, the patriarch.  In his letters to his Western friends, Charlie identified his village as “monshou County” in Guangdong.  His English transliteration of the Hainanese sound “Boon Sio” (or “Boone See-o”) proves his Wenchang ancestry, and Hainan was part of Guangdong Province then.

During a later trip with my brother, I nip along the woods behind Charlie’s bedroom.  A simple single-storey or even double-storey building about a hundred metres long and sixty metres wide could easily be constructed there to house a museum commemorating the Soongs.  

 

Qinglan Port and deep sea fishing, Dongjiao coconut palms

 

Qinglan Port, where Charlie Soong’s father had laboured a century ago, lies eight kilometres northeast of my ancestral Huiwen.  This ancient fishing port is located at the narrow mouth of Bamen (Eight-Gate) Bay.  

For over six hundred years, if not more, local fishing trawlers have sailed from this port at year-end to Paracel Islands (Xisha) to collect sea cucumbers and other marine products.  After a voyage of less than four hundred kilometres, they return before the onset of the May southwesterly monsoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qinglan Port at Bamen Bay
清澜港在八门湾

 

During the Japanese invasion via Haikou, many Hainanese fled through this port.  Their fishing junks took them to Southeast Asian destinations like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore.  I wish to see this historic port.  But not knowing my peculiar interest, Chen is more disposed to showing us the best and the fabulous.

Travelling along the main Wenqing Avenue that runs south from Wenchang town, Chen turns right into Qinglan-Baijin Road, at the end of which is a resort by the shore of Gaolong Bay.  The public car park is close by and the small park is not too crowded.  Operating since 2007, HNA Resort is a four-star hotel.  Capped with reddish-brown tiled roofs, its two visible blocks of rooms on the six floors are splendidly painted in pink; and, unfenced from the general public, they may be easily mistaken for luxurious private condominiums.

The driveway between the blocks is beautifully laid with stone pavers that form geometric designs in shades of beige and brown colours; it is also decorated with ornamental palms, flowering plants, and large sea-horse statues.  Coconut trees around the blocks and everywhere in the area add to the picturesque background.  Needless to say, Jo and I are awed by this new development.  I gather from Chen that the rooms are not expensive, starting from $50 per night. 

For the comfort of hotel patrons and visitors, a restaurant and a sheltered kitchen are provided at the small park.  A huge boulder is painted with these red Chinese characters: 海鲜街.  “Hai Xian Jie” means “Seafood Street”.  Four others are: 白金海岸.  “Bai Jin Hai An” literally means “White Gold Sea Shore” or “Platinium Seashore”.  But the translation on the stone is: “Beauty Beach”.  Beauty Beach is four kilometres south of Qinglan Port and Bamen Bay.  I should be able to enjoy a bird’s-eye vision of the bay and port from the balcony of the highest hotel room. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HNA Resort, Beauty Beach, Gaolong Bay, Wenchang
白金海岸, 高隆湾, 文昌

 

“Qinglan” means “Clear Waves”.  That is an ironic name for the port and the region.  Typhoons hit this coast regularly, and the turbulent waves are noticeably not clear.  Jo and I slowly walk towards the jetty.  A hundred metres to our left, about twenty-two single-seat wind-powered sailing yachts are at the beach, some have just landed while some are about to land.  Twenty or so people are milling around the landed vessels.  While some may be spectators, the rest are learning to sail.  I squat and feel the texture of the beach sand; the particles are slightly coarse.  I step forward and feel the water; it is cold.  At the end of the jetty are two simple pavilions with matted coconut-leaf roofs. 

Far away, a tiny solitary boat lethargically floats from my left towards my right.  After fifteen minutes, it has moved barely an inch.  The distant sky is blue, tinted with white clouds hovering above the undulating ridges of the mountain range.  The waves are rough.  The visibility of the seawater is about half a metre.  I would love to drop a fishing line here.  Are there big fishes?

We turn and glance at the coast.  Dense forest of coconut trees stand in rows as if in strict military precision.  Tall and upright, some are even more than thirty metres in height.  I have seen scattered coconut trees along the coasts and villages.  But there is nothing like the pageant I am witnessing.  The green stalks of leaves radiating from the tops of several trees sway at the touch of a gentle breeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coconut trees at Gaolong Bay beach:  winter, summer
椰子树在高隆湾海滩:  冬天, 夏天

 

Capable of surviving severe wind and drought, these humble plants thrive along salty coastal strips.  Not surprisingly, some extremely large coconut plantations and forests are found in the neighbourhood.  The well-known Dongjiao Coconut Groves is just across the bay.  Apparently, it has half a million coconut trees, which come in several varieties like “Red Coconut”, “Green Coconut”, “High Coconut”, “Improved Dwarf Coconut”, and “Water Coconut”.  Besides other products, Haikou Canned Food Factory at the Groves exports coconut jam.

So ubiquitous are the coconut trees that, according to one estimate, more than thirty million coconuts are produced annually in Hainan.  This figure of course pales in comparison to the quantity produced in Indonesia, a larger territory.  Its yield of fifteen and a half billion coconuts constitutes twenty-eight percent of the world’s total.  Providing a major source of income for the local Hainanese people, the maintenance-free coconut tree gains my deep admiration and respect.  No wonder, an International Coconut Festival is held annually in Haikou in late March or early April to celebrate the value and significance of this fruit.  It is reportedly the largest festival on the island, attracting international participation and visitors.    

As we saunter around the park, we are careful not to tread under a coconut tree.  The impact of an unwanted gift on the head can be catastrophic.  Some fallen fruits are lying undisturbed on the ground.  Some have germinated, showing two or three emerging upright stalks.  It is tempting to take one home.  The fruits are in different stages of growth.  Some are small and green while others have shown their age.  The latter are ripe for harvesting – by hand.  And that is a laborious task.   

A thought flashes through my mind: Beauty Beach is only about five kilometres northeast of my ancestral villages.  I could easily adapt to the land.  I could sink my roots here.  The fishes in the ocean are free.  I can harvest the fallen coconuts.  The fruits provide refreshing drink; their young gelatinous meat is nutritious.  Besides, the fruit yields the durable shell, which I can shape and present to friends as gifts.  Or sell as souvenirs.  I may even convert coconut juice into coconut wine and become an instant millionaire.... 

 

Wenchang Railway Station and the high-speed trains

 

It is shortly before six in the evening when Chen drops us off at Wenchang Railway Station.  His taxi meter, which has been running, shows a fare of 400 RMB.  The 300 RMB we pay is a good discounted price for the five-hour personalized tour.  We have been given a good deal.

Wenchang Railway Station has an imposing building.  Although the fast-train service commenced operation in December 2010, the three-hundred-metre section of road leading to the station has only been prepared for bitumen surfacing.  This station is one of the fourteen stops along the railway track of three hundred and two kilometres on the Hainan eastern coast under the joint project started in 2006 by the Chinese Ministry of Railways and Hainan provincial government.  More than eighteen million passengers are projected to use the system annually.  At the cost of RMB 18.19 billion (about US$2.24 billion), it links Haikou and Sanya and cut travelling time to eighty minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wenchang Railway Station
文昌火车站

 

In comparison, a flight from Haikou to Sanya takes about forty-five minutes.  Operating since 1994, Sanya Phoenix International Airport is the second largest in Hainan, catering to internal and regional flights.  Currently, more than 3.6 million tourists visited Sanya annually.  Other infrastructure improvements have been made during the last five decades.  The Central Highway cuts through the central highlands, thus linking them to the coastal regions in the north and south.  Using this highway, a car from Haikou takes about three and a half hours to reach Sanya.  Previously, it took twice as long.  

We check the billboard for the train timetable and fares to Sanya.  But we resist booking the tickets in advance; for we may change our travel itinerary.  Wenchang downtown is less than two kilometres off.  A bus runs close to the town centre; its fare is 2 RMB each.  The stop is not far from our hotel and the Confucius Temple. 

Constructed from wood, without any recourse to iron nails, during the eleventh century, the latter has been renovated and expanded since the Ming era.  It is one of the biggest ancient architecture in Hainan.  Fortunately, it was not destroyed during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.  It is the only major tourist attraction in Wenchang town.  Sadly, we need to give it a miss; for we must organize our journey to Sanya the next day.

Copyright 2015

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    Copyright 2015