山东侨批背后的故事：为家乡捐资办学，为侨胞争取平等

　　今年上映电影《给阿嬷的情书》，围绕侨批讲述了华侨先辈们勤劳勇敢、有情有义的感人故事。一封封侨批，寄托的是海外华侨对家乡的深切思念，凝聚的是中国人的家国情怀。侨批也成为承载中国人艰苦奋斗记忆的历史载体。

　　山东人当年“走西洋、闯东洋、上北洋、下南洋”，往家乡寄回一纸纸侨批。这背后，是山东华侨为家乡捐资助学、投资兴业，为海外华人争取平等权利的动人往事。

　　近日，“家国情怀跨山越海——侨批历史文化展” 在济南市图书馆举办。展览由鲁粤两省合作，展出210张史料图片、168件（套）侨批实物。

　　爱国侨领宁祥雨：捐资兴建山东省华侨中学

　　展览上关于印尼爱国侨领宁祥雨的故事格外动人。宁祥雨，山东平度人。1940年他携昌邑丝绸只身下南洋，此后长期侨居印尼雅加达。新中国成立时，他组织当地华侨举行庆祝活动。

　　1956年，宁祥雨联合侨胞，在家乡平度捐资兴建山东省华侨中学。当时，宁祥雨和另一名爱国侨领孙凤梧八方奔走，经过一年多的努力，共筹集了519位山东籍爱国侨胞的捐赠，共计捐赠印尼币1949735盾、印度卢比2420元，折合人民币30余万元。其中，宁祥雨和孙凤梧分别捐款六万盾。华侨中学最终于1956年开始招生。今年恰逢建校70周年。

　　1967年，宁祥雨在印尼当局的反华浪潮中不顾个人安危为侨胞奔走，后不幸罹难，用一生践行了“爱国爱乡、回报桑梓”的赤子之心。

　　展览上展出了三封来自宁祥雨的侨批。一封是1953年12月，他写给儿子的侨批。信中，他反复叮嘱儿子“好好做人”。同时他在信中也表达了对新中国的认同与向往。

　　第二封来自宁祥雨的侨批，于1961年由雅加达寄给儿子。信中提到自己多年来在当地的工作，以及组织排演京剧《金玉奴》的事情。他还写明邮寄的食品、衣服、鱼肝油丸、皮带等物资分配事项。

　　第三封是1965年宁祥雨由雅加达寄给儿媳的侨批。这封侨批写于万隆会议十周年之际，从亲历者的角度，记录了山东华侨参与新中国重大外交活动的历史时刻。

　　“华人的马丁·路德·金”王清福：创办美国第一份华文报纸

　　展览上展出了1896年一封由芝加哥寄往烟台的侨批的仿制件。这封侨批的主人是祖籍山东即墨的王清福。他是最早赴美的五位中国留学生之一，19世纪美国著名的华人民权活动家，被誉为“华人的马丁·路德·金”。19世纪美国排华情绪日渐高涨，王清福奔走美国各地，通过巡回演讲、撰写文章，努力促进美国社会认识中国，消弭排华偏见与暴戾言行，成为第一位向美国大众传播和解说中国文化的中国人。1883年2月，他在纽约创办了美国第一份华文报纸《华洋新报》，第一次提出“华裔美国人”的概念。

　　据介绍，这封侨批是目前发现年代最早的山东侨批。王清福在信中坦言，自己久居海外不归，是因为一心为旅美华人谋求权益。他嘱托儿子悉心照料母亲，表达了期盼早日团圆的深切思念，字里行间尽显侨胞“家国难两全”的内心挣扎。

　　信纸由英文书写，抬头印着《华人新闻报》的报头，下方印着一行字：“我们呼吁，给予已融入美国社会的在美华人平等权利与选举权。热爱自由的同胞与爱国人士，请伸出援手！”

　　山东侨批：注重亲情纽带，常有“无钱也寄批”的情形

　　除了像宁祥雨一样下南洋，像王清福一样走西洋，山东人还闯东洋、上北洋。展览分别对四条路径的侨批进行了展示。济南市图书馆馆员曲娜介绍，山东侨批带有鲜明的地域特色。“山东侨批封面上少见汇款信息，汇款并非首要目的，常有‘无钱也寄批’的情形，亲情纽带色彩更为浓厚。”记者看到，有的侨批主要是向父母报平安，有的嘱咐孩子遇事三思，不听谗言，多读书。“除了银钱，山东侨批中常见生活用品、食品、生产用具等实物，体现出在物资匮乏年代华侨对家乡亲人的基本生活需求的接济。”

　　此外，与广东福建等传统重点侨乡相比，山东华侨人数与侨汇总量偏少，难以支撑专营批局运营，未形成专营侨批业务的批局，由兼营其他业务的商号代为转寄。

　　展出的侨批，有的还反映了海外华侨在辛亥革命和抗日战争期间捐献侨汇或者实物，慷慨解囊的故事。

　　The film Dear You, released this year, tells the touching stories of our overseas Chinese forebears—hardworking, brave, and full of love and loyalty—centered on qiaopi (overseas Chinese remittance letters). Each qiaopi carries the deep longing of overseas Chinese for their hometowns and embodies the Chinese people's devotion to family and country. Qiaopi have also become historical vessels bearing the memory of the Chinese people's arduous struggles.

　　In those days, Shandong people "traveled west, ventured east, went north, and sailed south," sending letters home one after another. Behind these qiaopi lie moving stories of Shandong overseas Chinese donating funds to support education and investing in enterprises for their hometowns, as well as fighting for equal rights for Chinese communities abroad.

　　Recently, the exhibition "Family and Country Sentiments Across Mountains and Seas: Qiaopi(Overseas Chinese Remittance Letters) History and Culture Exhibition" was held at the Jinan Library. Jointly organized by Shandong and Guangdong provinces, the exhibition features 210 archival photographs and 168 items (sets) of qiaopi artifacts.

　　Patriotic Overseas Chinese Leader Ning Xiangyu: Donating to Build the Shandong Overseas Chinese Middle School

　　At the exhibition, the story of Ning Xiangyu, a patriotic overseas Chinese leader from Indonesia, is especially moving. Ning Xiangyu was from Pingdu, Shandong. In 1940, he traveled alone to Southeast Asia carrying Changyi silk, and thereafter lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, for many years. When the People's Republic of China was founded, he organized local overseas Chinese to hold celebrations.

　　In 1956, Ning Xiangyu joined forces with fellow overseas Chinese to donate funds to build the Shandong Overseas Chinese Middle School in his hometown of Pingdu. At the time, Ning Xiangyu and another patriotic overseas Chinese leader, Sun Fengwu, traveled far and wide to raise money. After more than a year of effort, they collected donations from 519 patriotic overseas Chinese from Shandong, totaling 1,949,735 Indonesian rupiah and 2,420 Indian rupees—equivalent to more than 300,000 yuan in RMB. Among them, Ning Xiangyu and Sun Fengwu each donated 60,000 rupiah. The Overseas Chinese Middle School finally began enrolling students in 1956, and this year happens to mark the 70th anniversary of its founding.

　　In 1967, amid the anti-Chinese wave perpetrated by the Indonesian authorities, Ning Xiangyu disregarded his personal safety and worked tirelessly for his fellow overseas Chinese, but tragically lost his life. He devoted his entire life to embodying the heartfelt devotion of "loving one's country and hometown, and giving back to one's native soil."

　　The exhibition displays three qiaopi from Ning Xiangyu. The first was written in December 1953 to his son. In the letter, he repeatedly urged his son to "be a good person." At the same time, he also expressed his identification with and longing for New China.

　　The second qiaopi from Ning Xiangyu was sent from Jakarta to his son in 1961. The letter mentions his work in the local community over the years, as well as his organization of rehearsals for the Peking opera Jin Yunü. He also spelled out how the mailed supplies—food, clothing, cod liver oil capsules, belts, and other items—should be distributed.

　　The third is a qiaopi sent by Ning Xiangyu from Jakarta to his daughter-in-law in 1965. Written on the tenth anniversary of the Bandung Conference, it records, from the perspective of a firsthand participant, the historic moment when Shandong overseas Chinese took part in a major diplomatic event of New China.

　　Wang Qingfu, the "Martin Luther King of Chinese People": Founder of America's First Chinese-Language Newspaper

　　On display at the exhibition is a replica of a qiaopi sent from Chicago to Yantai in 1896. Its sender was Wang Qingfu, whose ancestral home was Jimo, Shandong. He was one of the first five Chinese students to study in the United States and a renowned Chinese-American civil rights activist of 19th-century America, honored as "the Martin Luther King of Chinese people." As anti-Chinese sentiment rose steadily in 19th-century America, Wang Qingfu traveled across the country, giving lecture tours and writing articles to help American society better understand China and dispel anti-Chinese prejudice and violent rhetoric, becoming the first Chinese person to spread and explain Chinese culture to the American public. In February 1883, he founded the Chinese American News in New York, America's first Chinese-language newspaper, where he first proposed the concept of "Chinese Americans."

　　According to the exhibition organizers, this qiaopi is the earliest Shandong qiaopi discovered to date. In the letter, Wang Qingfu candidly explains that the reason he has lived overseas for so long without returning is his wholehearted commitment to fighting for the rights of Chinese people in America. He entrusts his son with the task of taking good care of his mother and expresses his deep longing for an early family reunion, revealing in every line the inner struggle of overseas Chinese caught between "family and country, unable to have both."

　　The letter is written on paper printed in English, with the masthead of The Chinese American at the top. Beneath it is printed the line: "We call for equal rights and voting rights for Chinese in America who have integrated into American society. Fellow countrymen who love freedom and patriots, please lend a helping hand!"

　　Shandong Qiaopi: Emphasizing Family Bonds, with "Letters Sent Even Without Money"

　　Besides sailing south to Southeast Asia like Ning Xiangyu and traveling west like Wang Qingfu, Shandong people also ventured east to Japan and went north (to northeast China and Russia). The exhibition displays qiaopi from each of these four migration routes. Qu Na, a librarian at the Jinan Library, explains that Shandong qiaopi have distinctive regional characteristics. "The covers of Shandong qiaopi rarely show remittance information. Sending money was not the primary purpose, and it was common for letters to be sent 'without money.' The letters carry a much stronger bond of family affection." As this reporter observed, some qiaopi simply reassure parents of the sender's safety, while others advise children to think twice before acting, not to listen to slander, and to read more books. "Beyond money, Shandong qiaopi commonly contained physical goods—daily necessities, food, and tools of production—reflecting the overseas Chinese's support for their hometown relatives' basic living needs during times of material scarcity."

　　In addition, compared with traditional major hometowns of overseas Chinese such as Guangdong and Fujian, the number of overseas Chinese from Shandong and the total volume of their remittances were relatively small, making it difficult to sustain dedicated qiaopi agencies. As a result, no specialized agencies handling qiaopi business ever took shape in Shandong; instead, commercial firms dealing in other businesses forwarded the letters on the side.

　　Some of the qiaopi on display also reflect the stories of overseas Chinese who donated remittances or physical goods during the Xinhai Revolution and the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, generously opening their wallets.

　　无限工作室&齐迹工作室联合出品

　　策划：王静

　　文案：孙翔

　　旁白、翻译、配音：武玮佳

　　剪辑：周溪琳

　　摄影：刘博洋

责编：武玮佳

审签：冯炜程