Coffee aroma evokes fond memories
Mixing condensed milk and charcoal-roasted coffee, barista Li Shihong prepares a classic Indonesian coffee milk, with the aroma of the hot beverage permeating the room.
Because it brings back memories of life abroad, this flavored coffee is particularly popular among local overseas Chinese who returned from Indonesia.
Li, 51, lives in Xinglong township, Wanning, a coastal city in the tropical island province of Hainan in South China. He has been running a cafe in the town with his wife, Shen Hongmei, for two decades.
Both Li and Shen are descendants of returned overseas Chinese. Li’s mother returned from Indonesia, while Shen’s mother came back from Thailand.
Since the 1950s, overseas Chinese from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan have returned and settled in Xinglong.
Those who returned from Southeast Asian nations brought back the habit of drinking coffee. “Everyone here drinks coffee, and the production process of local coffee is relatively extensive. We wanted to improve the quality of Xinglong coffee and enrich the taste, so we opened our own coffee shop,” Shen said.
The cafe enjoys a good reputation among the locals, and the couple’s relatives and friends often gather there to chat about the good old days. The couple have heard a lot of interesting stories about their ancestors from their uncles, Lin Shihe and Chen Defu.
Lin, 81, was born on Bangka Island, Indonesia. When he arrived in Xinglong in 1960, he was assigned to work at a local farm. He later studied medicine in Beijing, and eventually, he became a general surgeon. He was the dean of a hospital in Xinglong when he retired.
Uncle Chen is 79. He lived in Indonesia until he was 10, when he returned to China with his mother, who carried along all her dowry goods, including bronze pastry molds.
At that time, every overseas Chinese family would make their own pastries. Influenced by the food culture of the returned Chinese, the Xinglong natives used to borrow the molds to make Indonesian-style pastries during festivals.
“Even my mom would lose track of where the molds were. People took turns to use them,” Chen recalled. Since then, a pastry featuring a seven-layered cake has flourished and become a local specialty that is served in the coffee shop.
Li often asked his uncles to describe the distinctive characteristics of Xinglong’s local culture involving the returned Chinese.
The reply was simple: “Be tolerant, motivated, assiduous and positive. We were warmly accepted by the locals, therefore we extend the same courtesy to everyone.”
Even though business is booming, Li and his wife have no plans to open other cafes outside of town.
“The culture of overseas Chinese is the soul of our coffee shop. Without the soul, the cafe would not be as prosperous as it is now,” Li said.