China News Service, Beijing, October 3 (Reporter Xu Wenxin) During the National Day holiday, many overseas Chinese hometowns launched a variety of cultural and tourism activities to activate the historical memories of overseas Chinese hometowns and attract tourists to experience the culture of overseas Chinese hometowns.
Focusing on the theme of "Looking for Fresh Food", Quanzhou Shishi has launched a series of special activities such as the "Wind without Boundaries" fashion show, script tour, Hokkien young singer competition, street talk fairy, long street banquet and other special activities. The rich overseas Chinese flavor scenes attract a large number of tourists to check in and experience it.
This cultural and tourism event kicked off with the "Wind Surges Without Boundaries" fashion show in Kaijiang Mansion Bay. The event was simultaneously the opening ceremony of Quanzhou Fashion Week Autumn and Winter and the brand fashion conference. Yang Ziming, founder of Cabin brand, said that the Binhai Show is a window for attracting cultural tourism. It uses fashionable scenes to drive tourists to visit ancient streets, taste seafood, and listen to local accents, turning overseas Chinese culture from a static display into an immersive experience.
In his opinion, classic southern Fujian songs interpret the authentic temperament of overseas Chinese. The Sister-in-Law Pagoda represents the watch over the homeland, and the song interprets the perseverance of going overseas and "accepting fate but not surrender", which is the spiritual background of the people of southern Fujian to expand their careers across the sea and venture far and wide, and is also the emotional core of this show. Shishi has a strong hometown atmosphere, and most families have overseas relatives, retaining memories of parting and returning home from generations of "going to Nanyang".
Yang Ziming introduced that the show has been set up at the seaside for three consecutive years to interpret the unique context of the hometown of overseas Chinese: the sea is the starting point for people from southern Fujian to go overseas, and it is also the end point for the fallen leaves to return to their roots. There is a two-way echo between the inside and outside of the stage, outwardly it is about pursuing dreams, and inwardly it is about taking root in the homeland. The local elements such as swallowtail ridges and double wave patterns on the show, combined with the real scene of the ebb and flow of the seaside, allow the audience to intuitively experience the memories of the departure and return of overseas Chinese.
Huang Jinhuan, vice chairman of the Overseas Chinese Federation of Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, introduced that during the Double Festival, Xizhou launched special activities such as three-course tea singing and dancing, intangible cultural heritage market, kite festival, and Erhai fishing lanterns, using the festival as a carrier to deeply explore the resources of overseas Chinese hometowns and enrich the cultural tourism industry in overseas Chinese hometowns.
The local government integrates elements of overseas Chinese history into various festival scenes, relying on overseas Chinese history exhibition boards and overseas Chinese hometown cultural rooms to reproduce the struggle of overseas Chinese businessmen who went to Southeast Asia and cared about their homeland. The Erhai Fishing Lantern activity uses a real-life atmosphere to convey nostalgia, and brings an immersive experience to overseas Chinese family members and returning overseas Chinese. At the same time, the local government has opened interactive projects such as intangible cultural heritage handicrafts, three-course tea experience, and Mid-Autumn Tea Party, and organized visits to overseas Chinese hometown landmarks such as the Yan Family Courtyard and the Overseas Chinese Station to allow overseas Chinese to understand the development context of overseas Chinese hometowns during on-site visits. The local government also uses the opportunity of the festival to carry out exchanges and discussions among overseas Chinese, listen to the voices of overseas Chinese, show the new look of their hometown, and guide overseas Chinese at home and abroad to spread the stories of Xizhou’s hometown and deepen their feelings about their hometown.
In the golden autumn, Xizhou’s gilded rice fields and Erhai Lake are picturesque, and eco-cultural tourism projects such as rice field trains and pastoral coffee are very popular. Huang Huanghuan said that Xizhou is deeply cultivating the integrated development model of agriculture, culture and tourism, gathering the strength of the overseas Chinese community to protect Cang'er ecology, and transforming high-quality natural ecological resources into high-quality development advantages for overseas Chinese hometowns.
"Overseas Chinese culture is a characteristic cultural system formed by the long-term interaction and blending between overseas immigrants and their homeland. It takes geography and blood as the core ties, carries the deep attachment to the hometown of overseas Chinese, and covers rich connotations such as the characteristic buildings of overseas Chinese and the entrepreneurial spirit of Chinese businessmen. It has both cultural warmth and Spiritual power.” Xia Yuqing, a professor at the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Yunnan Normal University, said that Yunnan’s frontier overseas Chinese villages have unique characteristics and present a diverse and inclusive style. With Xizhou business gang culture and overseas Chinese farm culture as the core, they have formed a distinctive style of frontier overseas Chinese towns.
Since modern times, overseas Chinese businessmen from Xizhou, Heshun and other places have gone overseas and engaged in commerce and trade. After returning home, they have helped the infrastructure and cultural and educational development of their hometowns. They have left behind a large number of characteristic buildings that combine Chinese and Western styles, and have accumulated a heritage of overseas Chinese who value culture, education and gratitude. Major overseas Chinese farms in Yunnan have undergone development and transformation, absorbing the exotic culture brought by returned overseas Chinese from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and other countries, and deeply integrating it with local ethnic culture and Central Plains culture to form a lifestyle-oriented overseas Chinese hometown business that covers special food, folk songs and dances, diverse architecture, and distinctive dialects.
Xia Yuqing introduced that nowadays, the descendants of returned overseas Chinese have set off a craze for tracing their roots, and they have returned to their hometowns to trace their family overseas history and recall the past years. While experiencing the new development of their hometown, the descendants of overseas Chinese take the initiative to encourage relatives and friends to return to their hometowns for sightseeing, friendship, investment and business, continue to build a bridge of communication at home and abroad, and help the culture of overseas Chinese in border areas continue to rejuvenate.
