Personal connection uncovers town's entwined histories between China, US
A group photo of Donald MacInnis, his wife Helen and son Bruce, and the faculty at Fukien Christian University in Fuzhou, Fujian province. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Editor's note: More than a century ago, a number of US citizens began living in Kuliang, a famous summer retreat in Fuzhou, Fujian province, joining thousands of other foreigners. They blended with local Chinese, working and living in harmony with them. This page looks at Elyn MacInnis and her family's deep connection to Kuliang, and the essence of the human spirit, unity, love and deep-rooted heritage.
Elyn MacInnis holds a pair of small slippers, about 5 centimeters long, with their red color slightly faded over time. Despite some wear on the soles, the insoles are still soft and elastic, sturdily constructed with no gaps at the seams.
The shoes were handcrafted by a Kuliang mother thread by thread in Fujian province for MacInnis' husband, Peter MacInnis, when he was a baby 75 years ago. Also, MacInnis' daughter had worn them, and Mac-Innis' newborn granddaughter would soon fit into the shoes.
The Kuliang spirit represents ‘peace, friendship and love’.
Elyn MacInnis, an expert on Kuliang cultural studies
"You can see her tiny, tiny stitches," Elyn, who is also the consultant for the Kuliang history and culture research organization, said as she caressed the shoes. "It's a wonderful memento, and also like a symbol of cool and spirit passing from generation to generation," she said.
The shoes journeyed across the ocean and time, symbolizing the family's connection and attachment to China, and especially Kuliang, the small town hidden in the mountains in the suburbs of Fuzhou, Fujian's provincial capital.
The MacInnis family has resided in cities including Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing for almost 30 years since 1988. In the 1990s, Elyn impressed many Chinese students when she taught English with an engaging smile on a popular show aired by China Central Television.
Helen MacInnis holds baby Peter in front of a house in Kuliang, Fuzhou. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
However, it was not until 2015 that MacInnis first visited Kuliang.
This visit ignited Elyn's interest in researching the area as she explored stories forgotten by time and distance, searching for the narratives of old Kuliang residents and their descendants who had traveled back from China to the United States and were now scattered across different states.
Through old maps, archives, photographs and memories, she began piecing together these disconnected tales, reconnecting them once more.
"When Elyn first began her interest in Kuliang, it was because that was part of my babyhood," Peter said. "But as she researched and met people — the true story of Kuliang, the people in Kuliang, the Chinese people and foreigners came out — it was very exciting to see what they did. That's really what has motivated Elyn, not just looking for a house or a pair of shoes, but actually looking at the people who lived there and what they did, their relationship with China, in particular, the friendship and caring that was going both ways back and forth."
Donald MacInnis holds his granddaughters, Ai Zhong and Ai Hua, in Fuzhou in 1990. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Living in harmony
Kuliang, a summer resort from the late 1800s until 1949, attracted foreigners such as merchants, businesspeople, missionaries and consular officials who lived harmoniously with local residents. At its peak, the small town had 330 villas, with a sanitarium hospital, a post office, grocery stores, a church and a clubhouse equipped with tennis courts and a stone-built swimming pool.
Beneath the lush cedar trees and morning fog shrouding the mountaintop, children enjoyed their childhoods in Kuliang, and deep-rooted friendships blossomed between the local Kuliang residents and the foreign families.
Although Peter initially could not quite remember the specifics of his infancy in Kuliang, with the assistance of a local he eventually located the site of his old family home, the "Skye", originally an island in Scotland where Peter's family came from.
"The same mountains, the same rise in the hill, the same view out toward the (Minjiang) River and then back toward the ocean," Peter said as he remembered the place of his birth and childhood.
Peter's father, Donald MacInnis, first arrived in China in 1939 to teach at a high school in Fuzhou. During World War II, he returned to Fujian with the Flying Tigers — a formidable group of US volunteer fighter pilots who from 1941 to 1942 helped China fight the Japanese invasion.
The red shoes are the same pair seen in the photo where Peter is on the back of his mother Helen, who holds Peter's brother, Bruce, by her side. (MINGMEI LI / CHINA DAILY)
Following the war, Donald returned to China and continued teaching at Fukien Christian University in Fuzhou, where Peter was born. In 2004, at the age of 84, he made another trip to China to teach. Donald passed away in the US a year later, and in his will he expressed a wish for half of his ashes to be scattered in the Minjiang River.
"As I was growing up, we (Peter and his brother Bruce) would ask my father. My father had slides, and he put the projector on and put the slide up on the wall," Peter recalled. However, it was with Elyn that a deeper connection to the town emerged. Together, the couple began to gather "Friends of Kuliang", a group of individuals who shared similar family experiences to theirs.
Elyn and Peter crossed paths at Harvard University, where Elyn was studying religion but with a deep interest in China and Chinese culture, while Peter was majoring in East Asian studies.
As they found themselves in the same Chinese language class, working together on class assignments and school projects, Elyn gradually developed feelings for the "Chinese boy".
"You know, in our American way of thinking, wherever you're born and grow up, that's who you are. So he was Chinese! And I thought, oh, this is great," Elyn laughed and said. "When I was a child, all I wanted to do on a trip, you know, our family would take little trips, and all I wanted to do was go to Chinatown. I also want a Chinese baby. I don't know why, I was born to love China, an instinct."
Peter said with a smile, "Perhaps in a former lifetime, she was Chinese."
Donald MacInnis, a member of the Flying Tigers, plays the trumpet. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Uncovering narratives
The couple lived in China where they raised their daughters. Even after 50 years, they are still conducting research together on their topic of interest, delving into the cultural exchanges between China and the US, and uncovering the rich history and narratives of Kuliang.
"I'm the kite, and he's the string," Elyn described their collaborative work. "We are still doing our group project." While Elyn researched archives online, Peter scanned documents and conducted fact-checking.
Following their 2015 trip, the couple visited numerous libraries, gathered thousands of pieces of information and reached out to families who had lived in Kuliang.
"I wasn't looking for numbers," she said. Elyn is also working on a book that reports the story of Kuliang and the people-to-people friendship from the past to the present. "I was looking for quality of story, and I tried to find people whose families had stories to tell."
In June, Elyn returned to Kuliang to take part in the Bond with Kuliang: 2023 China-US People-to-People Friendship Forum, gathering "Kuliang's Friends" together, while also making new friends there.
"The Kuliang spirit represents 'peace, friendship and love'," Elyn said, but she added two more key elements — understanding and respect — to the people-to-people exchanges through generations of many US families.
Elyn and Peter MacInnis at Donald MacInnis' cemetery in Fuzhou, where Donald's Chinese name is carved on the wall. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In November, Elyn met Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco at a side event of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. Xi, who worked in Fujian province from 1985 to 2002, had heard about the friendship of Kuliang and wrote a letter to her about her efforts in documenting and promoting such friendship.
"I don't remember exactly what I said," Elyn recalled. "We shook hands, and it was like a casual talk with an old friend as well."
Elyn said she was very happy when she heard President Xi and US President Joe Biden reached an agreement on strengthening cultural exchanges for younger children, and she said that is what she is trying to do — also pass the "Kuliang spirit" on to younger generations, not limited to families who had lived in Kuliang but to the world as well.
"The most important thing is to have a relationship. As a child, it's a wonderful time to start a friendship and to be influenced by another country. The friendship has definitely passed from generation to generation," she said.
This is similar to how her father-in-law passed the connection to her and Peter, and how Elyn, in turn, passed that connection to her daughters, whose Chinese names are Ai Zhong and Ai Hua. Combined, they mean ai zhonghua, which translates into "love China".
"If China and the US can begin to make a beginning in this and carry it further, I think it will influence the other countries as well," Peter said.
