無畏的旅行

Seven Star Family Residence (七星世居) is hidden among dilapidated buildings which will be soon torn down for the urban redevelopment program. Apartments built by the locals for rent will be cleared out. Striking red banners hung on the empty buildings urge the remaining house owners to sign the housing demolition contract immediately. A poster pasted on the wall states that the new regulation has been approved by the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress. There the district government is entitled to requisition houses that do not sign the contract, on the condition that more than 95% of house owners sign the contract.  Thereafter, the region will be transformed into a commercial neighborhood. However, Seven Star Family Residence will be preserved to respect its history (Chen, 2016). Obviously, the contract rate has not yet reached 95%, still, a few people live around.   The residence was announced as an unmovable cultural relic of Longgang District in 201...

Tan Gong's statue/Yongbin Tan Gong Temple was located in Kuichong Subdistrict, Dapeng New District, east of Shenzhen. He was worshiped along with the Buddhist divinity Guanyin ( The One Who Perceives the Sounds of the World or Avalokiteśvara/in Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर ), to the left, and the Taoist divinity Taishang Laojun (The Supreme Venerable Sovereign), to the right. Tan Gong Temple/Yongbin Tan is his surname, and Gong is the honorific title, therefore, Tan Gong literally means Lord Tan. This temple was rebuilt in 2007.  From the statue of Tan Gong in his temple, we can see that he has an image as a child. According to folk legends, he was born in Huizhou Prefecture and became immortal in heaven at the age of thirteen in Nine-dragon Mountain.   He cures patients, forecasts the weather and protects sailors in the sea.   The existing record regarding Tan Gong was found as early as in Guangdong tongzhi chugao (廣東通志初稿), during the Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (...

读书杂志是我从大学时代就开始喜欢看的，与自己对人文历史的兴趣比较契合。读到吴小安教授写的一篇《特殊的年代、特别的地方和特别的学人》，讲的就是熟悉的饶宗颐先生。熟悉并不是说我认识饶宗颐先生，只是因为同样是潮州人。他不仅仅是香港的文化符号，也是潮州的文化符号。 高中时代的三年，每天都徜徉在山顶的选堂书廊，那里有着饶先生各种字体的十八方书作。后来，潮州市在古城建立了饶宗颐学术馆，展出饶先生在各个学科领域的成就：敦煌学、甲骨学、词学、史学、目录学、楚辞学、考古学、中印关系史、西亚史、潮学……饶先生对改革开放后忙着做生意的潮州人来说，是一个巨大的激励。潮州人能选择很多人生道路，不仅能成为李嘉诚，也能成为饶宗颐。 潮州人实际上早已经不不仅仅广东省东部的潮州人或者潮汕人，而是离散在世界各地的一个族群。正如饶宗颐先生，在1949年之后，移居香港，学术足迹遍布全球各地。1962年新加坡建国之后，他旋即于次年被聘请到新加坡大学任教，参与到新加坡华人族群文化构建的历史进程中，这也是文中推荐的《上座传经事已微——饶宗颐新加坡大学执教考》所细致考察的。 饶宗颐先生的学术生涯看起来像是偶然，但似乎也是一种必然，这与1949年前潮州与南洋千丝万缕的联系是分不开的。我希望增补的另外一本书是饶先生父亲饶锷修的《潮安饶氏族谱》。饶锷不仅仅是金融家，也是一位修养极高的文人，甚至被称为“潮学研究的先行者和奠基人”。饶宗颐正是在这样的书香门第中耳濡目染成长起来的。潮州的饶氏是18世纪饶仕保从嘉应，也就是现在的梅州的松口镇迁移到潮州来的。先住在城东，后又移居城内。饶仕保的儿子饶显科在城里做起了生意，先后开了“源发”染坊和“顺发”豆店。 到了19世纪后期，饶氏已经成为潮州知名的富商大贾，他们眼里就不只是小小的潮州府了。他们带着雄厚的资本，整合潮州、梅州以及东南亚华人网络，在金融业取得成功，网点包括第二次鸦片战争后开埠的汕头，客家人下南洋第一站的松口，并且延伸至印尼雅加达、日惹、望加锡。致富的同时，家族积极获取政治和社会地位。饶宗颐先生的曾祖父饶良洵修建了祠堂，捐官封爵；祖父饶兴桐于1914年当选潮州府商会总理；父亲饶锷在1924年当选为潮安县商会公断处长。 拥有雄厚资本的饶家并不要求族人一定要走科举的“独木桥”。潮州位于帝国南疆边陲，在历史上科举成绩也并不突出，官场上更无势力，只出过一位状元林大钦。他在京城为官...

Coffee with Hakka tofu (Yongbin) Huilong Family Residence (迴龍世居) is undergoing a revamp funded by the government of Pingshan District.  I was drinking coffee in the nearby fully renovated mansion.  The spacious mansion became a fancy brand-new café with idyllic design and delicacies and attracted a bunch of young people to drop by and take photos for their social media. It can accommodate roughly 100 persons as I observed. On the ground floor, a playground for kids was designed so that mothers could leave their children to play while enjoying gossiping and relaxing from stress. The owner named the café Hakka in English and ' ke ka'  in Chinese, namely a café of Hakka. I ordered a tofu coffee which creatively combined the western beverage with tofu, a traditional Hakka aliment. When coming out of the café, I realized that its neighbor, a larger complex Huilong Family Residence was also given a makeover. A kid is enjoying the café  (Yongbin) Fancy Hakka  café ...

Devastated entrance of Chengnei Village (Yongbin) In Shenzhen, it is fairly rare to meet a real local since it is a migration city.  Chengnei Village (城內村) is situated in Kengzi Subdistrict, the east corner of Shenzhen city. Last month, Kengzi Metro Station was open and the 14th metro line finally reached the city's east end. Huiyang District of Huizhou City is adjacent to the Kengzi Subdistrict to the east. The subdistrict was historically a Hakka area of Huizhou, but it was annexed to Bao'an Country in 1958 and administrated under Shenzhen City from 1979 onward.  The village used to be a walled village called Xiushan Family Residence. It was constructed in 1794 by four brothers Huang Weiqiu(维球), Huang Weizhen(维珍), Huang Weilian(维琏) and Huang Weijin(维瑾). It was a huge residence covering 15000 square meters and a fortress, but only two gates, and some dilapidated walls made by rammed earth survive. Most of the ancient houses have been supplanted by modern buildings. Obviously,...