China Daily Global Edition (USA)
‘Twins’, though far apart
When I saw Gail Pilley speaking with residents of Guling, Fujian province, it felt as though I was the foreigner rather than Pilley. That was because the conversation was conducted in Fuzhouhua, the local dialect, so I was unable to understand what they were saying.
Born in Guling 76 years ago, Pilley left China at age 8 when her family moved to Malaysia. Her recent trip was the second time she had returned to her childhood home, having visited in 2014.
She had an important appointment in her diary; to meet her “twin sister”, a retired professor of agriculture in Fuzhou who was born on the same day in 1941.
“Her name is Ying, and my Chinese name is Hua,” Pilley said, adding that their twinlike names originated from Ying Hua High School in Fuzhou. She had brought photos to show Ying and share childhood memories.
During my interview with the seven families during their four-day visit to Guling, I heard lots of stories about their relatives’ love for China.
For example, Elyn Gregg Cheney MacInnis, whose father-in-law was a pilot for the Flying Tigers — a group of volunteer airmen from the US who helped fight the Japanese during World War II — told me that her two daughters are named Ai Zhong and Ai Hua, both meaning “Love China”.
Though the visitors weren’t really interested in discussing politics, the movements of their families were deeply influenced by international relations.
Many of their relatives arrived in China during the late 1890s, when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) ended a century of isolation, while many left during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) to avoid air raids on the city.
The visit took place at a time when China is advocating greater openness and emphasizing people-to-people exchanges to boost ties with other countries.
A sentence from an old Chinese text encapsulates the friendly relations between the families and their Chinese friends: “The key to sound relations between states lies in the affinity between their peoples, which largely stems from mutual understanding.”