Letters sent by overseas Chinese reveal their emotional touch

Qiaopi and Yinxin Correspondence and Remittance Documents from Overseas Chinese was inscribed onto the UNESCO list of Memory of the World Register in 2013, including 160,000 such letters as key historical witness. About 50,000 of them were from Jiangmen.

Remittance from overseas used to an economic pillar for Jiangmen in the recent history. The hardworking local people living abroad frequently remitted money back to hometown to build houses and support their big families. Such cross-border exchanges also created unique cultural landscape in Jiangmen where mixture Chinese and Western culture is reflected through local architecture such as Kaiping Diaolou, also a World Heritage site.

The displayed letters not only reflect overseas Chinese people's love for their families and hometowns, but also their patriotism. Some exhibited remittance documents were not for individual interests, but to support Chinese revolutions and Chinese soldiers on the frontline of the War Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). According to a statistics shown on the exhibition, about half of remittance from overseas Chinese to support China in that war came from Jiangmen emigrants.

The exhibition will run through May 9.