Tea, Hokkien and the overseas Chinese: Xiamen's other story

A port that sent things out

The Portuguese reached Xiamen in 1541. European ships traded here on and off for the next three centuries, and the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing named it one of the first five treaty ports. Foreigners called it Amoy, their rendering of how the name sounded in the local language.

Two things went out through it in quantity. One was tea. The other was people.

Tea

A word that travelled

In Mandarin the drink is cha. On this coast it is te. Dutch ships loading at Fujian ports took the local word home with the cargo, and from Dutch it passed into English, French, German and Spanish. Countries that received tea by the overland routes, from Russia to Turkey to Iran, say some form of chai. The split in the world's vocabulary is generally traced to which Chinese port your ancestors' tea was shipped from.

What is in the pot

Fujian is oolong country. Oolongs are partly oxidised, somewhere between green and black, and the province produces the two best-known families.

• Tieguanyin. From Anxi county, in the hills behind Quanzhou. It originated there in the 19th century. The leaves are rolled into tight green pellets that open in the pot, and the taste is floral and buttery. The spring and autumn pickings are the most prized.
• Wuyi rock tea. From the cliffs of Wuyishan, in the north of the province. Darker, roasted, mineral. Da Hong Pao is its most famous name.

You will also be offered white tea from the north-east of the province and jasmine tea from Fuzhou.

How it is drunk

Sit down in almost any shop, office or home in southern Fujian and someone will start making tea. The method is called gongfu, which means doing a thing with skill and time. It probably developed in the 18th century, in either the Wuyi Mountains or the neighbouring Chaoshan region.

1. The pot or lidded bowl, no bigger than a fist, is rinsed with hot water to warm it.
2. Leaves go in, a lot of them, and are rinsed quickly. That first water is poured away.
3. The first proper infusion lasts ten or fifteen seconds.
4. It is poured into a small jug so that every cup is the same strength, then into cups that hold two or three sips.
5. Each round steeps a little longer. Good leaves give seven or eight.

Nobody rushes. The tea is an excuse for the conversation. As a guest, drink what you are poured and your cup will be refilled. Tapping two fingers on the table is a common way to say thank you.

If you buy, taste first. Any serious shop will brew what you are considering, and you are not obliged to buy afterwards. Prices range enormously and a high price is not a guarantee. Buy what you liked drinking.

People

The leaving

Southern Fujian is mountainous and was always short of farmland. From the 17th century onward, and in large numbers through the 19th and early 20th, men from these counties sailed for what the Chinese called Nanyang, the southern ocean: the Philippines, the Malay peninsula, Singapore, Java, Sumatra, Burma. Many went through Xiamen.

They took the language with them. Hokkien, the speech of this coast, is today spoken in Taiwan, Singapore, Penang, Medan, Manila, Cebu and many other cities. The varieties differ by where emigrants came from: Philippine Hokkien descends largely from the speech of the Quanzhou area, Penang's from Zhangzhou. A Hokkien speaker from Singapore can make themselves understood in a Xiamen market, and usually causes delight by trying.

The sending home

Those who prospered sent money back, with a letter, through private couriers. The letters are called qiaopi. The system ran from about the 17th century until 1979. In 2013 UNESCO entered the surviving correspondence, from Guangdong and Fujian, on its Memory of the World register as a record of emigrant life across Asia, North America and Oceania.

The money rebuilt the coast. The arcaded shop-houses of Zhongshan Road, the villas of Gulangyu in the style now called Amoy Deco, and many of the large houses in the villages inland were paid for from abroad.

Tan Kah Kee

The largest single giver was Tan Kah Kee, born in Jimei, who made a fortune in rubber in Singapore and spent it on education. He founded the Jimei schools from 1913, Xiamen University in 1921, and in the 1950s proposed a museum to tell the emigrants' story. His name and his statue are all over the city.

Where to see it

Published opening hours for the Overseas Chinese Museum disagree with each other, so check on the day. It is a short ride from Nanputuo Temple and pairs naturally with it.

If your family came from here

Some visitors arrive with a grandfather's village name on a piece of paper. Finding it is often possible. A few things help.

• Bring every spelling you have. Old documents romanised place names by ear from Hokkien: Chuan-chiu for Quanzhou, Chin-kang for Jinjiang, Lam-oa for Nan'an, Eng-chhun for Yongchun, An-khoe for Anxi. Someone who knows the dialect can usually work back from them.
• Know the surname in characters if you can. Villages here are clan villages, and the ancestral hall of a surname keeps the genealogy.
• Note the generation and decade. It narrows which branch and which hall.
• Expect to be welcomed. Clan associations take returning descendants seriously, and a visit can turn into a meal.

Most ancestral villages lie in the counties around Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, one to two hours from Xiamen by car. A day is usually enough for a first visit.

A half-day on this theme

Morning in Jimei: the Dragon Boat Pond, Aoyuan and the memorial museum. Back on the island for lunch. The Overseas Chinese Museum in the early afternoon, then tea, properly, for as long as you like.

Quick answers

Keep planning

• Jimei School Village
• Xiamen University
• Xiamen food guide
• Quanzhou day trip
• Gulangyu one-day route
• Is Xiamen worth visiting?