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PFP chairman reunites with mainland relatives
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-05-09 18:37
Chairman of the People First Party (PFP) James CY Soong met with his mainland
relatives Monday in Xiangtan, central China's Hunan Province, after paying
homage to his great grandfather and grandparents in Xiangtan's Juyu Village in
the morning.
A tearful Soong hugged his uncle Song Yangzhao tightly, and Soong's wife and
many of the relatives, including his cousins, shed tears while cherishing the
first family reunion in 56 years.
Soong's mainland relatives presented to Soong a photo of his great
grandfather and an ancestral jade plate to conclude the much anticipated
gathering.
Earlier on Monday, the PFP leader addressed the Juyu villagers in local
dialect and thanked them for greeting him whole-heartedly.
"I'm very excited to see a prosperous village that was destitute when I left
in 1948," said Soong, calling himself a child being nurtured by Hunan rice and
water of the local Xiangjiang River.
Soong bowed three times to the local audience, evoking stormy applause.
In the village, which was named after a tale of the capture of an 80-kg fish,
villagers lined up by the village road in drizzle in the morning, holding
banners which read "Welcome to home village, Mr. Soong!" and "Chu-yu, welcome
back home!"
Hunan is the fourth leg of Soong's nine-day trip to the mainland, which
started Thursday. He will also visit Beijing and meet Hu Jintao, general
secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, before going
back to Taipei the coming Friday.
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