By: Sr. Aquila Sy, PVM

Last summer in London, I met up a woman from China. She was studying English while I was attending a meeting of my congregation. We become friends. After much the effort to understand each other’s accent, we came to know something about each other. Her home was back in China. She lived there with her husband, her two children and her mother-in-law.

In a small bedroom house, they have the small stove and a small television and a bicycle each for her and her fourteen year old son. She was very appreciative of the good life in England and of the hospitality of the people she came to know. But at the same time, she was deeply aware of the high number crimes and the corrupt morality of the many people. She confided in me that she had never heard of God before, but she had found that believers in God were all good people. She encouraged me to visit China on my way home.

Eventually, I did succeed in visiting China. It was not too difficult. Inquiring about the trips to china and trying to decide whether to join the tour or to venture it alone were more complicated than actually getting my visa and locating my father’s place in China.

We reached the house of my uncle first, my father’s only brother. Upon being told to me, he looked dumbfounded. He was 79 years old but still healthy looking, but hard of hearing. He was in the Philippines with my father until 1933, when he decide to return China at the aged of 26.

He talked to me in Cebuano and asked the people he used to know. His own trade was making irons grills with his son and grandson. He was living in one of the units in a huge and high building.

After all the exchange of information, we went next door to meet my other closest relatives. There we talked again about the family, reviewed letters they received many years ago about my family in the Philippines and showed me photographs of my father as a boy and a young man.

There was much emotion shown by this family, especially by one of them, who is the vice- chairman of the country. He was very concerned of my family in the Philippines since my father’s death.

Both homes of my relatives were limited in space but some of few things spoke of quality and even of beauty, like the embroidered table covers, beautiful tea set and a large red bed with golden Chinese characters.

The following morning, my relative brought me to the house of my own father. Only the walls and the part of the roof-all made of brickwork-remained of the house. It was not far from where I met my first relative the day before. We went back to my great grandfather’s house to photograph it and the box-like container of the tablets showing the names of the deceased members of the family. That container was on the table, lighted and in a place of honor at the front of the living room.

We visited the tombs of my grandparents and great grandparents, which were in the same field. I presume that the field once belonged to my father’s family, because the tombs were there. While we were there, various persons who were working in the field came over to us and asked me about their own relatives in Cebu, a number of whom I knew well, since they were all my relatives too! 

Before leaving China, I went to my friends and all those who helped in one way or another, to thank them. My friend, Li-na said that she was very happy to have become a friend of mine. She shared with me about her family. She is 21 years old and has a sister and a brother, and all three of them, together with her parents, have work. Li-na is preparing to be married on November 1st to a young man who works as a driver. We exchanged our small dictionaries as souvenirs.

During my visit, my guide, ShoaPing and I shared a lot about each other. She asked me about my life, my family and my career. I described my religious life to her as simply as I could, and I showed her my Presentation cross, which I was wearing. She said that she like my congregation and perhaps could become a member.

She felt that all the people we asked for help were eager to assist us because they were so touched that a woman should be looking for the roots of her family when normally, among the Chinese, it is the man who does this.

I was touched by this young woman’s sincerity and dedication to her job.

Even now, the humanity, friendliness and natural simplicity of the Chinese, as I observed them in China, still live in my memory. Their neighborliness to one another and their response to me as a stranger reminded of the rural Philippines. I admired the simplicity, the informality and even the starkness found in the government offices that I saw, since it was in keeping with the condition of the people’s home.

My four day visit has left me with many valuable memories. It has also deepened my awareness of our Asian values and characteristics.

When my relative hear how and why I found them, I was struck by two of their remarks, which have given me much food for reflection:

FIRST, my relatives assured me of the endurance of a blood relationship. For them and for me, it is a bond which outlives time change and revolutions instinctively drawing together kindred, even in the absence of communication and…

SECONDLY, my relatives associated Christianity with a deeper intuition. For me, this was very significant, since Chinese thinking said to be intuitive. And coming from the people who once rejected Christianity because of its Western inculturation, these remarks were for me both complement and a challenge to my own Christianity as an Asian. 

Sr. Aquila Sy, PVM, is a Presentation Sister Living in Himamaylan Ngross Occidental