A century ago, when I was a teenager, I lived in Singapore with my parents. At that time, we moved every few years. Once I moved, my new house faced the Singapore River.
Xinjiacheng River was densely covered with barges. When the boat arrives at the seaside, the barges transport the goods to the Singapore River. The coolies carry things like rice, salty groceries, porcelain and local products on their shoulders, carry them ashore and put them into warehouses dotted on the shore.
I often sit on the arcade and watch the vivid pictures of the Singapore River. China coolies (when Singapore was a British colony and there were no so-called Chinese Singaporeans) had great respect for their labor skills. They are generally naked, with a cloth on their shoulders and a short-handled iron hook in their hands. They use this to pick up the goods and put them on their shoulders. One hundred catties of Siam (Thailand) rice, China pickles, winter vegetable jars, salt water and lychees covered with bamboo grates can all be carried on their shoulders and sprinted on the narrow springboard. When they land, they can still make room. When they walked on the rickety springboard, they formed an unusually vivid picture of China workers making a living and working hard overseas.
In addition to these lively labor scenes, there is also a strange scenery on the bustling Singapore River, which attracted the attention of a foreign teenager. There is a boat with a red bow and round eyes in the book. A wooden boat is a bit like a fish that has surfaced. With such eyes in the book, the image of fish is more prominent. According to the elders, this is called "red-headed boat". In previous years, when there were no or few ships missing at sea, the residents of eastern Guangdong went abroad on this red-headed ship and came to Singapore and Southeast Asian countries.
/kloc-the red-headed ship in the 1930 s may not always travel between the motherland and Singapore, but it is probably the product of the "antique legal system" in which local residents commemorate their ancestors and refute things.
Shortly after the "September 18th Incident", my father went bankrupt, and a group of our brothers and sisters went home with him. Zhang Lin Town in Chenghai is our hometown. When I first arrived in China, I felt that everything was new and I really wanted to get in touch with it. Soon, I forgot about the "red-headed boat".
There are many special things that attract me in my hometown. The first is the mainland town that was a bit shabby at that time. Why do so many people brag about their families? On the gates of these luxury houses, there are plaques such as "Dafu Land", "Shaanxi Family", "Jade Family" and "Yingchuan Family". There is a "Tianhou Palace" by the river, and the incense is flourishing. According to the general situation, where there are many boat people and fishermen, many people go to Tianhou Palace to tell the good or bad news of their journey and pray for good weather. Why is there also a Tianhou Temple here? There are not many boat people and fishermen in my hometown! Also, in this small town, there are many delicious foods on the city streets, such as jiaozi with minced meat and cakes, which are not inferior to what I saw later in many big cities in China. There are many vendors, and the competition degree of various snacks is rare in many inland towns. At that time, I only thought it was probably because there were many overseas Chinese here, but I didn't expect it to contain deeper roots.
There is a small river near our home, and the river surface is not very wide. We often swim and fish in the river. In the river, you can not only catch eels, soft-shelled turtles, crucian carp and mud shrimp, but also catch a kind of flat crab, which has a lot of crab roe in its shell and tastes delicious after being submerged. This kind of small crab is rare everywhere. According to fishermen, it is only produced in areas where salt water and fresh water meet. Sometimes the river we drink is salty, which means that our hometown is close to the sea, and sometimes the sea will flow backwards when the tide rises.
We sometimes see some old people standing on the river bank and exclaiming, "This river is much narrower now than before. You young people don't know that I heard from the older generation that this river can dock very large ships, and it really reaches the' foreign state capital' from here! "
I heard this when I was a teenager, but it didn't attract much attention, let alone delve into it! I have left my hometown since I was a child and have flown away. Decades have passed and I have never lived in my hometown again. Go back occasionally after leaving, but in a hurry and never stay long. My impression of my hometown is finally as mottled and blurred as a timeless photo.
After liberation, I kept hearing some news. Now, in Chaoshan area, some relics of ancient navigation are constantly being excavated. Once, the remains of a red-headed ship hundreds of years ago were excavated, which fascinated me. Think about hundreds of years ago, people arrived in Annan, Siam, east indies, Singapore and Malaysia with a little cold luggage, took a crude red-headed boat and delivered meals with salted fish, shrimp paste, sauerkraut and pickled radish. What courage and perseverance it took! These people are the ancestors of indigenous Chinese in Southeast Asian countries. Malacca has China tombs, and the dates on the stone tablets are not only from the early Qing Dynasty, but also from the Ming Dynasty!
I read some historical materials years ago and gained new gains. I know that before Shantou opened its port, my hometown Zhang Lin was a famous port. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, due to the need of overseas trade, it gradually rose. At that time, it had a wide river and was close to the sea. During the years of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Jiaqing, it became a lively town. In many places in eastern Guangdong and even Fujian, people come here to go abroad by red-headed boat. Shantou gradually declined after its opening. These historical materials made me suddenly enlightened. Why is there a Heavenly Palace with the highest incense? Why are so many large families together? This is the charm of history! When we were young, why could we catch small crabs at the junction of salt water and fresh water in rivers? Why do the old people who stopped production by the river send out such feelings? Now, all kinds of odds and ends can be linked together.
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