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Asia Times
06-05-2025
- General
- Asia Times
Traveling to my ancestral village in Guangdong unearthed tragedy
My book Red Pockets explores questions of inheritance: what we owe to ancestors and to future generations, and what we owe to the places that we inhabit. It was inspired by visiting my ancestral village in Guangdong in south China, after nearly a century of intergenerational separation due to migration, war and revolution. My grandfather in his unpublished memoirs wrote about his childhood stay in this rice village, and I had always wanted to see it. In spring 2018, I finally found the chance, during a research trip to study the impacts of petrochemical pollution in Guangdong. My trip coincided with the Qingming festival in April, when people return to their ancestral villages to sweep their relatives' tombs, making offerings of food, incense and burnt paper money to sustain them in the afterlife. Remarkably, my ancestral village was still intact, among the rice fields and western-style brick buildings, largely as my grandfather had described it. In fact, there are many similar clan villages in Taishan county, which is known as the 'home of overseas Chinese' due to its history of overseas emigration during the western gold rushes of the late 19th century. Penguin It was a moving yet unsettling experience, almost a comedy of errors, navigating different cultural expectations. One of the oldest villagers still remembered my family's history, which turned out to have been troubled. My ancestors had suffered untimely deaths, their tombs were lost and our ancestral house was expropriated during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. To restore my family's place in the village would be impossible: we would have to build a new house and give all the clan villagers gifts of money in lucky red pockets. Even then, nothing could repair the ruptures of the past century. Observing the Qingming tomb-sweeping rituals on the hills, I wondered: What were the consequences of failing to sweep the tombs every spring? When I got home to the UK, I carried stories of pollution and ancestral neglect with me. They stayed with me and began to take on new meanings as I continued my research on toxic pollution and environmental injustice. I learned that, in Chinese folk religious beliefs, neglected ancestors become hungry ghosts unleashing misfortune and environmental destruction. As the climate crisis intensified, I couldn't shake the feeling that the hungry ghosts somehow embodied collective experiences of climate grief, illness and anxiety. My idea to write Red Pockets came together in the wake of disappointment over COP26 in Glasgow. As I thought about the 'heavy debts that we owe' to past and future generations, two seemingly separate ideas merged into one – the personal story of my 'return' to my ancestral village and the wider story of confronting the devastating consequences of the climate crisis. I wanted to write a book that would explore the possibility of healing alongside the impossibility of returning to lost worlds. The writing process involved wrestling not only with different ideas but with different parts of myself. The hungry ghosts were difficult to summon in a way that felt real. At first, I tried a more academic approach, researching Chinese folk religious beliefs about death and burial rituals, and extreme climate disasters unfolding around the world. But I soon realized that the metaphor felt too thin in the absence of my own voice, and that I had to talk about hungry ghosts from a personal perspective. Once they came out, they seemed to take on a life of their own. Hungry ghosts animate the connections between the material and spiritual, how environmental devastation shows up in body, mind, and Earth: 'A divided self, a divided world, a failure to listen, a failure to honor.… They want us to face up to our broken obligations.' As I moved towards more positive themes in the final chapters of the book, the weight slowly began to lift. I learned that there are ways of living with ghosts, recognizing joy alongside despair, possibilities for interconnection despite disconnection and compassionate actions to 'defend our lands and ourselves.' I found what I was looking for: an offering. Alice Mah is a professor in urban and environmental studies at the University of Glasgow. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Zawya
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Chinese Embassy in Uganda Holds Qingming Memorial for Fallen China's Uganda Aid Experts
On April 4, 2025, Chargé d'affaires a.i. Fan Xuecheng of the Chinese Embassy in Uganda together with embassy staff presented a Qingming tomb-sweeping ceremony for deceased Chinese Experts who sacrificed their lives during the construction of the Uganda National Stadium project aid by China. Representatives from Chinese Community in Uganda also attended the event. In his remarks, Mr. Fan expressed profound respect and deep sorrow for the fallen experts, encouraging everyone to carry forward the spirit of their predecessors. He called upon all to strengthen their original aspirations on the new journey of modernization jointly pursued by China and Africa, forge ahead with determination, and write a new chapter in the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Uganda. Representatives from the Chinese institutions in Uganda stated in their speeches that it is their great honor to inherit the legacy of the martyrs and be pioneers of China-Uganda practical and friendly cooperation. The ceremony went on with solemnness with participants presenting flowers and undergoing a moment of silence. The Uganda stadium, aided by China, was completed and handed over in 1997. Four experts—Hu Yexing, Kong Huiping, Bao Jinping, and Wang Guorui—unfortunately sacrificed their lives during the construction. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Uganda.
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Tomb Sweeping Day and breakdancing in Congo: photos of the day
Relatives visit graves at Pok Fu Lam cemetery in Hong Kong, as people honour their ancestors during the annual Tomb Sweeping Day, known locally as Ching Ming or Qingming Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One at Miami international airport. Global stocks fell sharply and the US dollar hit a six-month low after Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs against the US's global trade partners Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters People sleep under mosquito nets on the street in Mandalay following last week's 7.7-magnitude earthquake Photograph: Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images Farmers pick tea leaves in Yuyao for the Qingming festival. They choose the very first tea sprouts, which are considered to be of high quality Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock People fish at Lake Victoria, in Kisumu, where the fishing industry has become an important source of income for residents Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock A breakdancer from the Congo Street collective performs at the Kituku market port in Goma. Drawing inspiration from breakdance and hip-hop, while incorporating their unique style, the collective transforms this space into a vibrant stage, captivating the audience with their energy and mastery of urban dance Photograph: Jospin Mwisha/AFP/Getty Images Germany's Pauline Alexandra Pfeif competes in the women's 10m platform preliminary during the World Aquatics Diving World Cup 2025 at Centre Acuatico Code Metropolitano in Guadalajara Photograph:Artists perform during the Lusail Sky festival as part of the Qatar Eid al-Fitr celebration Photograph: Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock Photograph:Craftsmen work on diamonds at a processing unit in Surat Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters Snails are displayed to be sold on the side of a road in Sousse Photograph: Ons Abid/AP
