Granddaughter retraces family roots back to Henan

Chai Hsuan, a former television host from Taiwan, fulfilled the wish of her late grandfather, who had fought the invading Japanese over 80 years ago and never returned to his hometown, by reuniting with their long-lost family in Henan province earlier this year.

Chai's grandfather had left Henan as a young man to study in Beijing. Later, he joined the military and fought in the Battle of Taierzhuang in 1938, which marked the first major Chinese victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). After the war, he went to Taiwan with the Chinese Kuomintang around 1949 and never had the chance to return to the Chinese mainland.

His deep longing for his hometown on the Chinese mainland became a shared memory within the family. "As a child, I heard many stories about Henan from my grandfather and was told that we are Chinese people," recalled Chai, who was born in Taiwan.

On his deathbed, unable to speak due to his condition, Chai's grandfather held her hand and shed tears, as if trying to convey unspoken words. "I interpreted those tears as a sign of his regret for not returning to Henan, so I decided to fulfill his wish," Chai said.

In her spare time, Chai delved into family genealogy and pieced together her grandfather's longing through his poetry, which often expressed nostalgia for peonies and the Yellow River in Henan.

In April, Chai and her father set off on a journey to Mengzhou, Henan, where they visited their ancestral home.

"I was surprised to find the century-old house where my great-grandmother and grandfather lived still standing. From the old well to the clay stove, every brick and tile told me this is our home," the granddaughter said.

Returning home was her grandfather's dying wish. As she set foot on the ancestral land, Chai's emotions swelled. "Grandfather, we've come back for you," she said.

They also found her grandfather's long-lost son in Henan.

"My uncle and my father, in their seventies or eighties, met for the first time in their lives. The two brothers embraced each other and wept. At that moment, I felt our family had finally become complete," Chai said.

After paying respects at the ancestral home, she wrote the word "home" on the yellow earth. "At that moment, we finally felt rooted," she said. They collected water from the Yellow River, which is regarded as China's mother river, to bring back for ancestral rites.

Although the distance from Taipei to Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan, is 1,313 kilometers, it took three generations of the Chai family to make the journey, Chai said.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the war against Japanese aggression. While visiting Taierzhuang in Shandong, where her grandfather had fought valiantly, Chai and her father donated the late soldier's writings about the war to the Taierzhuang Battle Memorial Hall.

Chai said she hoped her family's story will help more people understand that people across the Taiwan Strait are one family.

However, she was misrepresented by some media outlets with separatist views in Taiwan because of her trip to the mainland to trace her roots.

In August, Chai left her position as a host at Taiwan's TVBS and announced on her social media account that she would continue to produce programs about cross-Strait exchanges as an independent blogger.

Recently, she attended a cross-Strait exchange event in Fuzhou, Fujian province, sharing her journey of reconnecting with her roots. During the event, she reunited with her relatives from Henan.

Her cousin brought her some baked earth from their hometown, which represents the traces of life left by their ancestors and symbolizes the foundation of their family. They hope she will take it back to Taiwan and establish the family's roots there.