Journey to Meixian, the home of my ancestors

Living in China for the past 18 months I was unaware of having any relatives in China. Most of my family presently live in the UK where I was born and also Mauritius where my parents’ generation are from. However, an eye-opening trip to Meixian; the birthplace of my ancestors soon proved me wrong. Accompanied by my parents, my uncle and aunt from the UK and my father’s oldest brother and his grand-daughter from Mauritius, I travelled to Meixian to find out more about my Chinese roots and try to find some of the answers to questions I had about the emigration of the family from Meixian to Mauritius.

The Chan Tanghao 

It was at the Lantern festival banquet dinner, to mark the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, where I found out that, incredibly, the 800 people present were in some way related to me. The dinner had taken place in the Chan compound outside the Chan ancestral hall which is known as the Tang hao in Chinese (堂號) – a simple unassuming structure which housed a small temple to offer worship and sacrifice to our ancestors. I had previously imagined this place to be quite rural and undeveloped, i.e. no roads, old wooden building and dirt tracks as my father had described it after visiting it 10 years before but it was not the case. Around the Tang hao were well-kept communal buildings and houses surrounding a small lake and a cemented road that ran around the compound.   

View of the Tanghao from the lake

On the night of the banquet, many red lanterns adorned the outside of the tang hao and underneath them, a sea of over 100 red circular tables covered the area around the Tang hao and also inside the building itself. To the right of the Tang hao was a pop-up outdoor kitchen; huge woks the size of upside-down parasols sat on intensely burning fires whilst young chefs and servers rushed to and fro with vats of raw ingredients. All members of this Chan clan were invited to attend the dinner, including women who had married out of the family and whose own family was not regarded as Clan. I was impressed and surprised to find out that I am 14th generation of the clan. This meant that there had been a long line of fathers stretching hundreds of years back in history, all bearing the same Chan name and originating from the same little place in Meixian.


As dusk fell, each family sat down at their reserved table and eagerly awaited the banquet whilst drinking toasts of Baijiu to welcome the new year. My family meanwhile, was ushered to the head table because my eldest Uncle was a honoured guest at the celebration. I observed the scene before me with much wonder; it was a raucous, colourful celebration which is usual for Chinese tradition. Suddenly the food started arriving; I had no clue how they were going to feed 800 people at the same time but the cooks and the servers though noisy and brusque, handled it with ease and one by-one a dish of steaming food was placed on the table before us. The food was plentiful and absolutely delicious; amongst the 12 or so plates were well-known Meixian dishes, for example, braised belly pork on preserved vegetables, steamed corn-fed chicken and fish ball soup. I was quite relieved that we were not treated to a dog casserole which was the case when we had lunch at the compound a few days before.

During the banquet the head of the clan said a few words and acknowledged my family travelling all the way from England and Mauritius. My eldest Uncle beamed in pride for this place had been his home from the age of 5 to 15 years old.  I tried to imagine him as a little boy running around the compound and my grandmother working hard to provide for the family. Returning to his old home in China and clan meant so much to him and it was wonderful to share the experience and learn more about his life there with his mother, my grandmother. She and my grandfather was one of the thousands of immigrants who left Meixian to find work in Mauritius. Following the birth of her two sons and daughter, my grandmother returned to Meixian with the children and lived in the same area with the other Chans, managing a small shop.

Outside the place where my grandmother lived

On a visit to the area a few days back, my Uncle showed us where they lived, it was a small rundown shack not far from the Tang hao that had been abandoned many years ago. A few minutes walk from here was her shop, which now housed a mobile communications store. With a heavy heart I learnt more about the grandmother I never knew, the hard laborious life she led and the painful tragedy of the death of her infant daughter. With the threat of civil war in China, life in Meixian was no longer safe therefore she took her teenage sons back to Mauritius and rejoined her husband where they made a life for themselves. After bearing 6 sons altogether, she longed for a daughter though it was not meant to be. Therefore it has been said that unusually for a Chinese person, she wished her sons to bear daughters and later her wish came true, with 10 granddaughters and only 2 grandsons in the family. Though, sadly we were all born before we could meet her, her legacy continues in the Chinese names that she chose for us before we were born, all etched on her gravestone. 



On my return back to Nanjing in China, where I live, I told all my Chinese friends about the trip, the massive banquet and what I had found out about my roots. I was very surprised to hear that they had no Tang hao or did not know what generation they were from. It would appear that in modern day China that this it is rare to follow such traditions but I for one, have come away feeling humbled by the whole fascinating experience and insights into my ancestor’s lives.