Photo shows a niche housing a plaque of inscriptions of family names, on the wall at the Tiong Ancestral Hall in the village of Nee Du in Fujian. IT was when China announced its no-visa rule earlier this year that two friends seized the opportunity to travel to the Fujian Province to learn more about their Foochow roots. Diana Lin and Grace Tiong, two remarkable women in their 60s and 70s, respectively, braved the journey without knowing anyone from that part of China.
Their mutual friend Veronica Wong was sceptical: “You two are really brave, especially now that you are both past the age of 60. “Even if you could find your ancestral villages, would you still have any relatives there? “Must you really go?” The two friends just chuckled at the remark, and went ahead anyway. From Malaysia to Fujian Kanowit-born Diana and Sarikei-born Grace have travelled together many times, having gone to China’s Yunnan before the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the Fujian trip, which was initiated by Diana, was their first time travelling without being a part of an organised tour group. “Being in a big group would not afford us that luxury of pursuing our personal objectives,” said Diana, who engaged a tour agent in Xiamen to arrange the return flight tickets via online. Upon arrival in Xiamen, the two ventured out to travel, by land, to Minqing County in Fujian, home of their ancestors.
Diana, now residing in Seremban, said her parents arrived in Kanowit from Fujian in the 1940s. S.