{"id":32351,"date":"2026-02-28T11:46:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T03:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=32351"},"modified":"2026-02-28T11:46:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T03:46:49","slug":"for-kinship-not-gifts-chinas-rise-redefines-ties-with-relatives-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=32351","title":{"rendered":"For kinship, not gifts: China\u2019s rise redefines ties with relatives abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The bond between Chinese Singaporeans and their ancestral families in China has become more about mutual understanding rather than financial ties.<\/p>\n
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FUJIAN \u2013 That uncertainty is common among Singaporeans who have ventured to China in search of their roots, or xun gen<\/em>, as the process is known in Chinese.<\/p>\n
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But as China rose from being one of the world\u2019s poorest nations to the second-largest economy, the lives of its people were transformed \u2013 along with their relationships with descendants of overseas Chinese, including those in South-east Asia.<\/p>\n
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Once reliant on financial support from abroad, relatives in ancestral home towns are now largely self-sufficient. Family ties with those overseas are shaped less by obligation and more by personal choice and kinship.<\/p>\n
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Since China opened up in 1978, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty, reducing global poverty by 75 per cent, according to World Bank standards.<\/p>\n
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The per capita disposable income for rural residents surged to more than 21,000 yuan (S$4,000) in 2023, from 134 yuan in 1978. Growth rates outpaced those in urban areas, though absolute income levels still lagged behind.<\/p>\n
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Xiamen, a port city in south-eastern Fujian province, is one of China\u2019s earliest cities to open up to foreign investors. Today, it is one of the country\u2019s wealthiest cities. ST PHOTO: AW CHENG WEI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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In 2021, President Xi Jinping announced during the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) that the country had built a \u201cmoderately prosperous society in all respects\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Its gross domestic product exceeded 100 trillion yuan in 2020, with national per capita disposable income reaching 32,189 yuan \u2013 double the level in 2010.<\/p>\n
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These changes are felt most keenly not in statistics, but when overseas Chinese return to meet relatives they barely know.<\/p>\n
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Thinning ties, shifting sands<\/h2>\n
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For Mr Aw, his relatives in China did not ask for financial commitments, such as reconstruction of ancestral halls or red packets, during his two visits.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere were all these stories when I was younger about how the relatives in China would ask for a lot when there were overseas returnees,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the interactions so far with my distant cousins have been comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Participants of the Nanyang Hwu Clan General Association\u2019s xun gen<\/em> tour in September 2025 enjoying their first dinner in Anxi county. ST PHOTO: AW CHENG WEI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The distant cousins were warm and generous. One invited them to his restaurant every night for meals and drinks and gave them tea leaves and bee hoon, which are Fujian\u2019s specialities.<\/p>\n
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At the end of the trip, Mr Aw and his siblings handed out red packets \u2013 not because their Chinese hosts needed them, but as a gesture of appreciation.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe money is also for them to help us clean the tombs and prepare offerings for our great-grandfather during festivals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Mr Aw (centre), with his siblings and relatives from China, standing in front of his great-grandfather\u2019s tomb in Anxi during a visit in September 2025. ST PHOTO: AW CHENG WEI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Taking a cue from the first trip in 1989, the Aw family also gave their Chinese relatives other gifts including alcohol and cigarettes on the second trip. This was the first visit for Mr Aw\u2019s siblings and his nephew \u2013 this reporter.<\/p>\n
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Mr Aw said he would be open to future visits to see the village again, visit relatives and enjoy China\u2019s tourist spots.<\/p>\n
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Yet renewed contact does not always translate into closeness \u2013 at least for now. While Chinese relatives told The Straits Times that they were glad to have met Singaporeans on xun gen<\/em> tours, they remain somewhat unsure how to sustain or deepen that closeness.<\/p>\n
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Mr Aw\u2019s distant cousin Hu Xinmin is an example. Now in his 60s, Mr Hu first met Mr Aw and his father in 1989 and said he was delighted to see his Singaporean relatives again 36 years later.<\/p>\n
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Mr Hu Xinmin, in a light purple shirt, with his distant relatives from Singapore during a visit to their ancestral home in Zhiyang village, Anxi. They are joined by other members of the Hu family in China. ST PHOTO: AW CHENG WEI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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However, he felt that they had grown up in different environments and led lives that were \u201ctoo different to find commonalities\u201d, resulting in a sense of distance during their interactions. \u201cThere is a stronger sense of boundaries compared with the relatives I grew up with,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
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Even so, when the Aw family visited Mr Hu and other relatives in 2025, warm greetings and pleasantries were exchanged in the Hokkien dialect.<\/p>\n
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Mr Hu, who now lives in Hutou town, Anxi county, received Mr Aw and his family in Zhiyang village, where their forefathers came from.<\/p>\n
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During dinner that day, Mr Hu held the hand of this reporter \u2013 a distant nephew \u2013 throughout the meal and invited him to his home in Hutou, about a 40-minute drive from the ancestral village, where his wife prepared local snacks like yam buns.<\/p>\n
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In Dabu county \u2013 a centre of Hakka culture in Guangdong province \u2013 a local resident, Mr Li, was deeply touched when his Singaporean cousin Lee Hong Ping returned to the ancestral village in 2018.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt showed that he has strong family values,\u201d said Mr Li, who is in his 50s and declined to give his full name for privacy reasons.<\/p>\n
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We in China no longer rely so much on our overseas relatives for financial aid. The bond, in some sense, has become simpler and more about kinship and mutual affection.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mr Li, a Hakka living in Dabu county, Guangdong<\/figcaption> <\/figure>\n
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His cousin, Mr Lee, 56, heads the heritage committee at the Char Yong (Dabu) Association in Singapore, a clan association for Hakkas. He maintains casual contact with his distant relatives, sending occasional greetings on the Chinese messaging platform WeChat during festive periods.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBeyond that, I might contact them for a meal when I am in the same city as them,\u201d said Mr Lee.<\/p>\n
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Mr Lee Hong Ping (left), who is part of the Char Yong (Dabu) Association, a Hakka clan in Singapore, with his distant aunt and cousin at their ancestral home. PHOTO: COURTESY OF LEE HONG PING<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Chinese in Singapore: Then and now<\/h2>\n
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Earlier generations of overseas Chinese in Singapore typically sent money, daily necessities and letters to their relatives in China \u2013 a tradition often passed down for at least one generation.<\/p>\n
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They also organised fund-raising activities to build basic infrastructure, such as schools, roads and temples, for their ancestral villages or helped new immigrants from their home towns settle in Singapore.<\/p>\n
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In 1989, the Jiufengyan Temple in Anxi was being rebuilt with donations from Chinese migrants, including the late father of Singaporean Aw Ban Soon. PHOTO: COURTESY OF AW BAN SOON<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
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Today, the Jiufengyan Temple, which has a history of over 600 years, is fully restored. ST PHOTO: AW CHENG WEI<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Clan associations \u2013 based on home towns, surnames or dialect groups \u2013 were formed to act as a bridge between the two countries.<\/p>\n
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Some associations organised trips from Singapore to China, a tradition that continues to this day. The Aw family\u2019s 2025 trip was organised by the Nanyang Hwu Clan General Association in Singapore.<\/p>\n
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Mr Francis Phua, deputy secretary-general at the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA), which has some 230 member associations, told ST: \u201cOverseas Chinese in Singapore (in the past) would think about returning home to China one day, or what is known as luo ye gui gen<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The proverb describes fallen leaves returning to their roots.<\/p>\n
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As the migrants amassed wealth, bought property and built their lives in Singapore, the idea of putting down roots, or luo di sheng gen<\/em>, gradually took hold, said Mr Phua, 66, who is also president of the Hainan Hwee Kuan in Singapore.<\/p>\n
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In addition, changes in China prompted overseas Chinese to take up citizenship in their destination countries. One major change came in the 1950s when China stated that overseas Chinese who had taken citizenship elsewhere would no longer be considered Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n
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The Overseas Chinese Museum in Xiamen, a port city in Fujian, noted that \u201cmost overseas Chinese chose to acquire citizenship in their countries of residence\u201d.<\/p>\n
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South-east Asia\u2019s Chinese diaspora through the decades<\/p>\n
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Internal strife within China could also have influenced some Chinese to remain abroad.<\/p>\n
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In 1945, after World War II, China resumed its civil war that started in 1927 and was interrupted in 1937 by the Japanese invasion.<\/p>\n
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The war ended in 1949, leading to the establishment of the People\u2019s Republic of China, run by the CPC. The Kuomintang government then retreated to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.<\/p>\n
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The Overseas Chinese Museum, founded by Singapore businessman and pioneer Tan Kah Kee, noted that \u201cthe world situation changed dramatically after World War II (and) multiple factors prompted the majority of overseas Chinese to obtain local citizenship\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWith their identity shifting from expatriates to citizens, their sense of national belonging underwent a fundamental change,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
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At that time, Chinese citizens from coastal provinces such as Fujian and neighbouring Guangdong streamed into Singapore to take up jobs as traders, journalists and teachers. Some also started their own businesses.<\/p>\n
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Their descendants identified more strongly with Singapore, where they were born. Over time, many early migrants lost touch with their relatives in China.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe earliest migrants would share with their descendants stories of their childhood and the lives of their relatives back in China, which were then passed on to their children,\u201d said Mr Phua.<\/p>\n
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Living with extended families was also common, which helped foster a greater sense of shared identity \u2013 including awareness of their ancestral home towns in China and their relatives there.<\/p>\n
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Waves of Chinese Singaporeans started visiting China to xun gen<\/em> in the 1980s, during China\u2019s earliest years of opening up.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mr Francis Phua, deputy secretary-general at the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations<\/figcaption> <\/figure>\n
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