Exhibition of qiaopi highlights romance and responsibility

For many viewers of the film Dear You, the line that lingers longest is one written in a letter:

"The river and ocean span thousands of miles, but when I hold you in my heart, the distance between us disappears."

It captures a particular kind of Chinese romance, one shaped by distance, separation and a sense of responsibility. The film has also brought qiaopi, a distinctive form of correspondence that combined letters with remittances, to a wider audience.

Between the Opium War in 1840 and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, roughly 10 million Chinese people left the country for destinations overseas, according to historical estimates. More than 70 percent went to Southeast Asia. Zheng Musheng, the male protagonist of Dear You, was one of them.

The lives and emotions of that generation emerge in an exhibition at the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China in Beijing, which brings together nearly 100 cultural relics including qiaopi from the museum's collection and private collectors. Read together, the letters offer an intimate record of Chinese expatriates navigating a rapidly changing world while remaining deeply concerned about those at home.

In 1939, a Chinese migrant in Myanmar wrote to his parents after hearing that World War II had begun. He urged his father, who was considering traveling to Southeast Asia to work with him, not to act hastily. Instead, he suggested that the family leave their coastal home and move inland.

But concern also traveled in the other direction.

In a 1943 letter, an elder brother urged his younger sister to persuade their father not to hold an elaborate birthday celebration. The Pacific War had made it increasingly difficult to send money home. "We can discuss it again when peace comes," he wrote.

The letters often came with the practical necessities of everyday life: medicine, cloth and silver coins.

"Qiaopi were not simply letters. They carried money, too," says Zhang Yan, a curator of the exhibition. "They traveled between foreign countries and the homeland, connecting overseas Chinese people with their families."

Alongside wartime family letters, the exhibition includes correspondence between husbands and wives, echoing some of the stories depicted in Dear You.

One of the letters that moved Zhang most was written by Xie Shikuo, a Chinese migrant in Peru, to his wife. He addressed her affectionately as "my beloved Yunji" and used the letter to stay connected with his family, reminding her to send their children to school and take care of her health.

As he traveled from one country or port to another, he wrote to tell her where he was.

"It is all there — the ordinary details of family life. But you can feel how deeply he loved his family and his homeland," Zhang says.

The exhibition also re-creates aspects of the world in which the letters were written, displaying furniture and kitchen utensils once used by overseas Chinese alongside scenes inspired by the film.

Visitors can write their own qiaopi on traditional vertical-format paper and mail the letters afterward. The Beijing exhibition runs through September before traveling to Fujian province, a coastal region with deep historical ties to the qiaopi tradition.