Taiwan people trace family roots on mainland

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With ancestral legacies spanning centuries, it's not uncommon for Taiwan people to embark on journeys to the Chinese mainland to seek out their roots.

One such traveler, Wang Tien-shan, a 43-year-old entrepreneur from Taipei, recalled his ancestral homage in Nan'an, Quanzhou, Fujian province, in October. Surrounded by kin in the ancestral temple, Wang, holding an incense stick, expressed his enduring desire to uncover his family history.

"Kneeling before my ancestors' tablets, I felt a profound sense of homecoming, a reconnection to my origins evoking a profound sense of belonging and rootedness," he said.

For many individuals in Taiwan, spanning diverse backgrounds, professions and political affiliations, tracing their ancestry back to the mainland, particularly Fujian, is a prevalent theme. This practice reflects historical passages that have forged familial connections across the Taiwan Strait, binding the two sides through shared heritage.

About 80 percent of the Taiwan population can trace their ancestry back to Fujian, as throughout history, there have been numerous instances of large-scale population movements to Taiwan. In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), administrative systems were established on the island, leading to a peak in travel and development between the island and the mainland.

Zhu Dingbo, the former deputy head of the China Museum for Fujian-Taiwan Kinship in Quanzhou, Fujian, said Fujian people, guided by clan ties, played pivotal roles in Taiwan's early development, establishing communities reminiscent of their Fujian origins.

Their nostalgic replication of village names and ancestral customs in Taiwan underscored this deep connection, with more than 400 pairs of villages sharing names across the Strait, and some 20,000 pairs of villages tracing lineages back to the same root on the mainland, he said.

These pioneers transplanted their traditions, erecting ancestral temples mirroring those in Fujian and meticulously documenting their lineage in family trees. Tombstones in Taiwan bear inscriptions of Fujian hometowns, affirming roots and preserving ancestral ties.

Today, in southern Fujian, people's family genealogies usually record their early ancestors engaging in trade, fishing and business activities after arriving in Taiwan, Zhu said.

"All these traces serve as evidence of the interconnected bloodlines between both sides of the Strait," he said.