A bus carrying more than 30 people pulled over at Anding Village in Nanlang Town, Zhongshan City on November 24. These people are all descendants of Cheng’s family and made up the root-seeking group of Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Hawaii. A total of 9 families returned to Zhongshan to worship their ancestors and experience the city’s development under the guidance of Cheng Jinxiu, the 29th generation of Cheng’s family.

Her two grandchildren, 4-year-old Harper and 1-year-old Reed, were the youngest root-seekers this time.

In 1885, Cheng Weihuang, Cheng Jinxiu’s great-grandfather, left Anding Village and worked as a laborer in Hawaii. He married a woman from the same village in 1891 and had 9 children. Shortly after, he came back to his hometown carrying 1,000 dollars. However, owing to political turbulence and sickness, Cheng Weihuang failed to return to Hawaii. In that case, he decided to stay in Anding Village and founded another family.

In those days, Cheng Weihuang took an active part in village’s development and financed the construction of Anding Primary School (now Nanlang Primary School). He died in 1932 in the village.

“There is inconvenience, but I still hope the children can develop an impression of their hometown from an early age.” Cheng Jinxiu has expectations for the children. She hoped the hometown impressions and stories can exist in children’s memory and be inherited to later generations regardless of spatial, cultural and environmental boundaries.