Over the past 37 years, Zhang Meisheng has collected more than 60,000 qiaopi—letters and remittance documents sent home by overseas Chinese in the past.
As a folk archives appraisal expert at the Guangdong Provincial Archives, Zhang is a native of Chenghai District, Shantou City. In his younger years, he was passionate about collecting antique banknotes and often interacted with secondhand goods dealers.
Thirty-seven years ago, Zhang came across a stack of envelopes in a pile of waste paper. The envelopes bore exquisite stamps, and the addresses were written in elegant Chinese running script, with bold, flowing brushstrokes.
Zhang had rarely seen such exquisite calligraphy. He told the dealer, "I will buy all these envelopes." After returning home and opening the envelopes, he realized that what he had brought back was far more than fine examples of folk calligraphy—it was a precious cultural treasure: qiaopi.
From then on, he began actively searching for and collecting qiaopi from piles of waste paper. Each night, he would open the letters collected during the day, laying out 20 or 30 of them across the floor. It was as if the overseas Chinese writers were standing before him, recounting their life stories. Many of these touching stories still bring a lump to his throat today.
"When I read these qiaopi, I often picture overseas Chinese wandering on foreign streets," Zhang said. "They racked their brains trying to earn more money to support their families back home. They lived frugally just to send money home."
Zhang once came across a letter from a woman searching for her missing husband, along with a neighbor's reply letter. The woman's letter contained only one sentence, yet it fully conveyed her longing and sorrow after waiting for her husband in vain.
Qiaopi records no grand tales, only the homesickness, farewells, joys and sorrows, and life experiences of ordinary people. Sent across mountains and seas, these letters bear witness to the perseverance, kindness, and sincerity of overseas Chinese.
Since then, qiaopi has remained on Zhang's mind every day. Sometimes, when the phone rang and a person told him he or she had more than a hundred, or even hundreds of qiaopi, he would set off on his motorcycle with great anticipation. His collecting trip was not limited to Chenghai. He traveled all over the Chaoshan region, covering Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang, in search of these precious documents.
In 2013, qiaopi was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The preparations before the inscription and subsequent promotion helped the public gain a new understanding of qiaopi culture. Zhang was gratified that his decades-long efforts helped preserve this cultural heritage. He still devote himself to the research and promotion of qiaopi culture to this day.
Text | Zhang Xuanzhen (intern), Deng Li (intern), Liu Lingzhi
Photo | Nanfang Plus
