My Dad gave me a copy of this photo yesterday and told me a little bit of the village where my grandfather was born into. He came to the then Malaya in the 1890's as a teenager to find a better living. My Dad was born in Malaya in the year 1927.
The village still exists today. We still have relatives there. This picture was taken in 1967 after some reconstruction work done to the village. It is situated in Mei Xian 梅县 (population 1，000,000) somewhere in Meizhou City 梅州市 and is north east of the province . And Meizhou is one of the cities in Guangdong Province. To give some idea about Meizhou, it encompasses an area of 1.5925 million sq km and in 2004 it had a population of 4,968,900 people. Meizhou is the last bastion and the spiritual home for the Hakka people.
The village still exists today. We still have relatives there. This picture was taken in 1967 after some reconstruction work done to the village. It is situated in Mei Xian 梅县 (population 1，000,000) somewhere in Meizhou City 梅州市 and is north east of the province . And Meizhou is one of the cities in Guangdong Province. To give some idea about Meizhou, it encompasses an area of 1.5925 million sq km and in 2004 it had a population of 4,968,900 people. Meizhou is the last bastion and the spiritual home for the Hakka people.
梅州市位于广东省东北部，是历史上客家民系的最终形成地、聚居地和繁衍地，更是全世界客家华侨的祖籍地和精神家园，被尊为“世界客都”。
梅县地处北纬24°18＇、东经116°07＇、在广东省东北部，梅州市中部，东北与福建上杭、永定县接壤，东西宽70公里，南北长110公里，地处闽粤 赣3省之要冲。县人民政府驻程江镇。总面积约2000平方公里，辖22个镇，人口约100万，旅居海外华侨和港、澳、台同胞共80多万人，是广东著名华侨 乡之一。梅县教育发达，足球运动普及，客家山歌流行，素有“文化之乡”、“华侨之乡”、“足球之乡”的美称；先后被授予“全国文化先进县”和“中国民间艺 术（山歌艺术）之乡”称号。
My Dad had been back to the village where his Dad grew up as a child. My Mom was there too. He had been there to pay his respect to his ancestors. He gave me a copy of the video of his visit there. It was amazing. I hope I can share his sense of his root, one day.
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