{
  "id": 918866,
  "title": "I visited my family's ancestral home in Guangdong for the first time and found where our story began",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/i-visited-my-familys-ancestral-home-in-guangdong-for-the-first-time",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-14T23:05:38.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Channel News Asia",
    "slug": "channel-news-asia",
    "url": "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/travel/family-ancestral-home-gulao-guangdong-heritage-journey-6296446"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The writer travelled to Gulao, a water town in Heshan, Guangdong, China, for the Dragon Boat Festival in June. This was her first visit to her family's ancestral home, Tinbinfong, one of several villages in Gulao where her family's ancestral home once stood. Her brother had discovered this village a few years earlier, piecing together fragments of history and reconnecting with relatives she never knew she had.\n\nOver four days, they met the large extended family and relished in the company, as well as in the local cuisine, which included homemade soups simmered over charcoal, freshly harvested vegetables, and freshwater carp caught from the lake. They also learned some cooking techniques from a retired chef who happened to be a long-lost cousin, while his wife made rice dumplings from scratch.\n\nMy father, now 85, had visited the ancestral home three times since their extended family was reconnected by their brother. This was the first time for his sisters, aged 92 and 86. The quest for their family's history began in 2022 and was led by their brother Wai Yue. He was determined to find their origins, driven by the question of who they were today and where they had come from. His late grandmother often spoke of the family's past, sharing stories of widowhood, raising seven children alone after their grandfather's untimely death during the war, and a golden era of luxury with servants, drivers, and imported cars.\n\nUpon arriving in Gulao, he discovered their ancestral home in the village of Tinbinfong by coincidence. Local officials invited him for lunch with the Communist Party chief, leading to his discovery of the family house and photographs of their eldest uncle and his family. This led to the reunion of their lost overseas diaspora, as they were able to connect with relatives they had never known they had.\n\nThe writer's late biological grandmother, Ah Ma, often spoke highly of the family's achievements and greatness, unaware that the family was known as Lan Kwai Tong. Their great-grandfather, Lo Sek Kum, was born in the ancestral home before leaving for the Straits Settlements, where they built a fortune in various businesses, including import-export, real estate, textiles, plantations, cinema, and firecrackers. Our biological grandmother was his beloved concubine. He passed away during the Japanese occupation of Singapore, leaving behind a loving wife to raise their children alone.\n\nWithin the ancestral home, they found original correspondence and remittances sent home over the last century. These letters contained obligations, longing, and family ties across the South China Sea, carefully preserved by relatives they had only recently found. The writer compared these letters to the Teochew film Dear You, about a grandmother who spent decades believing she was corresponding with her long-lost husband. This reunion allowed them to work on restoring the remaining six ancestral houses to their original form, as their relatives had since moved into a newly built pink house nearby while continuing to farm vegetables and raise chickens.",
  "summary": "The writer and her family travelled to Gulao, a water town in Heshan, Guangdong in China, where she rediscovered her heritage, lineage and an extended family.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "CNA - Singapore",
        "title": "I visited my family's ancestral home in Guangdong for the first time and found where our story began",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/i-visited-my-familys-ancestral-home-in-guangdong-for-the-first-time-921962",
        "published": "2026-08-14T23:05:38.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}