At one point of my life I was contemplating a year of teaching English in Kwangchow or Chung San. I sounded out my uncle and he told me that it is best overseas Chinese do not return to work in China, unless it is with an International Corporation with contractual, enforceable letters of appointment running to 18 pages. As he himself was born overseas and did return to China in his youth, he must know what he is talking about. I have since thought of China with lots of reservation unless it is bringing money there to spend as tourists.
To tour China is hardly something of interest to me. Meeting kin is another matter. Now that main land Chinese could move around freely, every few years I see my elder cousin and his wife. My second brother visits China often, a habit he started when he studied and worked in Hong Kong. My eldest brother and wife visited Chung San recently and invited my second cousin and wife to visit us in Kuala Lumpur.
Now that there are female infants in both cousins' families, it will be three years before they would venture to visit a place five hours by flight away. The Heng family seemed to multiply very slowly. From Generation 1 of 2, G2 of 4, G3 of 9 and G4 of 14. There is no G5 yet. Though two G4 have been married for 4 and 3 years respectively, both couples are childless. Both G4 carry other surnames and are descended from daughters. There are only six descendants from G4 with the surname of Heng.
My elder uncle had the Heng family records. According to my elder cousin who heard from her dad, the Hengs (Chinese character bear) came from Hubei. Before the dynasty ended, the ancestor used to work in Peking as a government scholarly servant. Now that elder uncle had passed on, no one knows where the document is. It could have been thrown away after the flood at the back of his shop lot. A business man valued profit, why did he care about family history?
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