Foreign families achieve their Chinese dream
Honored guests visit county where their ancestors once lived
When Mark Becker climbed a mountain in Fuzhou in the eastern province of Fujian with his aunt and wife last week, he praised efforts of President Xi Jinping that helped his family fulfill their dream of visiting the place where their ancestors lived and sometimes fought.
In the early 1900s, Becker's great-grandfather, Harry Caldwell, arrived in Guling (previously known in the West as Kuliang), a mountainous county in Fuzhou. He spent about 40 years doing missionary work there and improving the county's educational facilities before returning to the United States during World War II.
"My grandfather's first language was really Chinese. He only spoke English until he was 3 or 4 because all his friends were Chinese children," said Becker, one of 19 people from seven families the Fuzhou government invited to visit their ancestors' old home.
Missionaries first arrived in Guling in 1886. Later, the county attracted diplomats and merchants who wanted to avoid the summer heat in Fuzhou, one of five Chinese treaty ports opened in the wake of the First Opium War (1839-42).
Becker also expressed gratitude for the efforts Xi made 25 years ago to help a widow visit Guling. "I don't think we'd be here if he hadn't done that. We've all dreamed of coming here for years. We all grew up with the same stories. So for him to help us come was a wonderful thing to do," he said.
In 1992, when Xi was Party secretary of Fuzhou, he read a story in People's Daily about Elizabeth Johnson Gardner, who wanted to honor her late husband's wish to revisit his childhood home by traveling to Guling herself.
In February 2012, when Xi, who was then vice-president, visited the US, he told the story of how he helped to fulfill her Guling dream.
Milton Gardner (1901-86), a professor of physics at the University of California, lived in Guling for the first nine years of his life, until 1911. He repeatedly muttered "Kuliang, Kuliang" in the final hours of his life, according to his family.
Xi said that after reading the touching but sad story, he immediately had government officials contact Gardner and invite her to visit Guling. Four months later, Gardner completed her trip to the county.
"Mrs. Gardner was so excited that she had finally fulfilled her husband's last wish. She said she would cherish this bond of friendship between her husband and the people of China, because after seeing for herself the beauty of Guling and the warmth of the Chinese people, she understood why her husband had been so deeply attached to the country," Xi said later.
Xi called on the two countries to strengthen people-to-people exchanges and build stronger public support for mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the US.
"I am sure there are many such touching stories between our two peoples," he added.
Xi still attaches great importance to people-to-people exchanges in the promotion of international relations.
At the conclusion of the BRICS summit in Xiamen, Fujian, this month, people-to-people exchanges were highlighted, along with economic and political cooperation among the five members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Mark Becker has good understanding of the friendship between the people of China and the US. His great-grandfather killed 30 to 40 tigers to protect local residents from harm.
"There was a Chinese man whose nickname was 'Dada', who was a very good friend of my great-grandfather and hunted tigers with him. They were best friends. He became a sort of uncle to my great-grandfather and his brothers," he said.
He added that his relatives lost contact with Dada when they left China: "That's one of the things my family has always wondered about - if there would be a way to get in touch with his family."
Undying affection
Elyn Gregg Cheney MacInnis, daughter-in-law of Donald MacInnis who came to China in the 1940s and fought the Japanese as a member of the Flying Tigers air squadron, said her father-in-law had fallen in love with China.
"When my husband's father passed away in 2005, he sat there still, with Christmas cards from his Chinese friends held tightly in his hands," she said. "He loved China throughout his entire life."
In the last year of his life, Donald MacInnis visited China and taught English and journalism at a university in Nanping, Fujian.
He contracted meningitis during his trip and died several months later after returning to the US, she said.
"In this beautiful place they shared love with the people here and were loved in return. And this love was so deep that it has reverberated through the generations, and we have been called back to this place our family once called home," she added.
The grandparents of Andrea Kathryn Condit founded a middle school in Minqing, Fujian, in the early 1900s.
Condit said that throughout the trip, she wanted to learn a great deal more about the life of her great-grandmother, who came to China alone as a single woman at age 26 and then taught at a girls' school in Fuzhou.
"The signs that pointed to different places, like the cultural center, the swimming pool and the church, are well-preserved. We are very grateful that the government has preserved the history we share with the local people," she said.
Dean Raymond Billing, grandson of Arthur W. Billing, a Methodist missionary who lived in Guling from 1900 to the 1940s, said Xi had made great efforts to help the visitors trace their ancestors' Chinese roots.
"There used to be so many Westerners here, there was real connection. Xi has restored that connection. Before that it was hard to travel here. Some people in my family thought about it, but you could not do it," he said.
After discovering that the house his grandfather built was still standing, Billing said it was "amazing". His family and the current owner of the villa feature in a photo taken in front of the house.
Lin Yinan, an expert in Guling culture at East China University of Science and Technology, said the county was the first home of many Westerners who were born there, and as a result, they regarded the place as their hometown.
"This is their homesickness, and the seven families are looking for their family roots here," he said, adding that people-to-people exchanges have played an important role in boosting bilateral relations.
外国家族喜圆“中国梦”
——跨国乡愁归根福州鼓岭
上周，当马克•贝克与他的姑妈和妻子一起登上了位于中国东部的福建省福州市的一座山峰后，他盛赞习近平主席为帮助他的家族实现梦想所做出的努力——邀请他们参观祖辈曾居住、生活和战斗过的地方。
20世纪初，贝克的曾祖父柯志仁来到了位于福州的山城鼓岭（此前在西方被称为Kuliang）。一直到返回美国参加第二次世界大战之前的近40年时间里，他在那里从事传教活动，以及改善当地的教育设施。
“我祖父会讲地地道道的中文。他从三四岁开始，就不怎么讲英语了，因为他所有的朋友都是中国孩子，”贝克回忆说。贝克是受福州市政府邀请参观鼓岭祖居的7个家庭的19人之一。
1886年，西方传教士第一次来到了鼓岭。第一次鸦片战争后，福州成为中国五个通商口岸之一，而鼓岭成为西方外交官和商人在福州的避暑胜地。
贝克还对习近平25年前帮助一位美国遗孀访问鼓岭、实现先人梦想的努力表示了感谢。“如果他没那么做，我想我们现在不会在这里。我们所有人这几年来都期望能够回到这里，我们都是在同一个故事里长大的。他能够帮助我们回到这里，真是太好了！”
1992年，当习近平担任福州市委书记时，他在《人民日报》上读到一篇关于伊丽莎白·约翰逊·加德纳的故事。加德纳夫人希望能够尊重已故丈夫的遗愿，亲自到访鼓岭——她丈夫童年居住生活的地方。
2012年2月，时任国家副主席的习近平在访问美国时，讲述了自己是如何帮助加德纳夫人实现她的“鼓岭梦”的。
密尔顿·加德纳（1901—1986）是加利福尼亚大学物理学教授，在鼓岭一直生活到1911年他9岁的时候。据他的家人说，在他生命的最后几个小时里，他反复呢喃“Kuliang，Kuliang”。
习近平说，他在读了这篇感人但悲伤的故事之后，立即通过有关部门与加德纳夫人取得了联系，专门邀请她访问鼓岭。四个月后，加德纳夫人完成了她的鼓岭之旅。
“加德纳夫人当时激动地说，丈夫的遗愿终于实现了，美丽的鼓岭和热情的中国人民使她更加理解了加德纳为什么那样深深地眷恋着中国，”习近平回忆说。
习近平呼吁进一步加强中美两国人文交流，厚植中美互利合作最坚实的民意基础。“我相信，像这样感人至深的故事，在中美两国人民中间还有很多很多。”他说道。
对于人文交流在提升国际关系方面的作用，习近平也高度重视。本月在福建省厦门市举行的金砖国家领导人会晤上，“金砖五国”（巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非）的人文交流以及经济政治合作受到了重点关注。
对于中美两国的民间友谊，马克·贝克感同身受。他的曾祖父曾猎杀三四十只老虎，以保护当地居民免受伤害。
“有一个外号叫‘达达’的中国人，是和我曾祖父一起猎虎的好朋友。他们是最好的朋友，我的曾祖父及其兄弟们把他当作伯父，”贝克尔说，“我的亲人在离开中国后就失去了与‘达达’的联系，我和家人一直想知道，是否有办法和他的家人取得联系。”
永恒的感情
穆霭仁的儿媳妇穆言灵说，她的公公爱上了中国。穆霭仁在20世纪40年代来到中国，曾作为“飞虎队”空军中队的成员与日本侵略者作战。
“2005年，在我公公去世前，他静静地坐在那里，手里拿着他的中国朋友寄来的圣诞卡，”她说，“他一生都热爱中国。”
在生命的最后一年，穆霭仁访问了中国，并在福建南平的一所大学教授英语和新闻。他在旅行期间感染了脑膜炎，几个月后返回美国，不幸病逝。
“在这个美丽的地方，他们与当地人分享爱，也收到当地人爱的回报。这段感情太过深刻，以至于在几代人之间产生了反响，我们也被召回到这个我们的家人曾称之为家乡的地方，”她说道。
20世纪初，安德里亚•凯瑟琳•康迪特的祖父母在福建省闽清县创办了一所中学。
康迪特说，在整个旅程中，她都想要更多地了解曾祖母的生活。曾祖母26岁时独自来到中国，在福州的一所女子学校教书。
“鼓岭那些指向不同地方的路标，比如文化中心、游泳池和教堂，都保存得很好。我们非常感谢当地政府保存了这段历史，以供我们及当地民众了解，”康迪特说。
迪恩·雷蒙德·柏龄（Dean Raymond Billing）说，习近平主席为帮助外国来访者追溯祖辈的中国根源作出了巨大的努力。迪恩•雷蒙德•柏龄的祖父柏龄威（Arthur W. Billing）是一位卫理公会传教士，曾于1900年至1940年生活在鼓岭。
“这里曾经有很多西方人，鼓岭和他们之间有着真切的联系，而习近平主席恢复了这种联系。在此之前，我们很难在这里旅行。我的家族中有人曾想来旅行，但却无法成行。”他说。
发现他祖父建造的房屋依然存在之后，柏龄用“惊人”一词来评价。柏龄一家人和房屋现任主人在房前还拍了一张难忘的合影。
华东理工大学鼓岭文化专家林轶南说，对于很多在鼓岭出生的西方人来说，鼓岭是他们的第一个家，因此他们把那里当作他们的家乡。
“这里是他们的乡愁。这七个家庭来这里也是为了寻根。”他补充道，并强调人文交流在促进中美两国关系方面发挥了不可磨灭的重要作用。
