40、初回集美（上）
陈佩仪/文 卢梵/译
那是1985年的秋天，我与我新加坡的经理从福州乘长途大巴往厦门。马路上尘土飞扬，单行道上跑着的大都是卡车和载客的巴士。车行了六个小时，便停在公路旁边村口的一家饭店前，乘客全都下车，吃午饭。我想起那里的厕所，记得是平地上挖的一个坑（叫“茅坑”？），在一条狭窄小路的尽头，要从稻田中间穿过。我的首次中国之行，为做生意，跑了五个星期，走了11个省16个市，这是我处处碰到的生活环境。对此我已经习惯，对各种美食，我也尽情享用，大快朵颐，却从不生病，也不拉肚子，一次也没有。
给阿公墓献花
公路沿线的风光很美，美得叫人兴叹，我不禁想起中国的水墨画。这样的景色，在中国其他省份我从没见过。这景色分三个层次：前景是稻田，中景是深绿色的森林，最后背景是灰色的属喀斯特地貌的群山，各具特色。三十年后，我想再寻找这景色，却什么也没找到。这难道是我当年的想象？
那时，我普通话水平完全为零。因此我的经理符先生提前一天给我堂叔陈仁杰打电话，说我要来集美。堂叔一点也不惊讶，说最热烈欢迎我的到来。我想我爸一定给他写了信，告诉他我要到集美看看。
符先生和我在集美社外的汽车站下车。旁边停着一辆三轮车，车主半睡着等待客人。我们上前询问，把行李搬上车。我坐在行李上，符先生跟着三轮车走。就这样，我们经过一座很奇特的桥，来到位于集美学村中心地带的陈嘉庚故居大门前。
接着，我得到平生的一份大惊喜。通往故居大门的道路两旁，至少站着十几个人，耐心地等着我，迎接我进入故居。我们坐下来喝茶，茶后，堂叔带我们到马路对面的归来堂，还告诉我们，这是我们住宿的地方。归来堂是爷爷去世后，周恩来总理指示建造的，目的是供陈嘉庚后人回国时居住。归来堂总体是栋单层的方形建筑，按照传统格局设计建造，中央有个庭院，还有一个大厅，厅里的内侧摆着一张供奉先人的神案。庭院的三面是长方形的客房。厅中供着阿公的石雕像（这使我想起美国华盛顿特区的阿伯拉罕·林肯雕像），石像面朝庭院，看着远处的大海。
那时，我也没多想，就说“好吧！就住这里吧！”后来才发现，除了能勉强使用的卫生间（每间客房都有一个卫生间）外，归来堂完全没有任何其他生活设备、设施。这一来，我“可怜的”堂叔还得给我们搬床、床垫、毯子、毛巾等。不仅如此，他还得一日三餐在家（就在嘉庚路的拐角处）给我们做饭。饭菜都由我堂婶（就是忠信的母亲）在一间熏得黝黑的厨房里精心准备的。堂叔家的三层楼房，在我看来，极为简陋，四面是没有装饰的灰色的水泥墙，但堂叔却对自己的房子感到十分自豪，说这是全集美唯一有现代厕所的房子（厕所在一楼）。堂叔的儿子（我想他应该有四、五个儿子吧!）都有各自的卧室和客厅。他们都不愁娶不到媳妇，因为那时女的只愿嫁给有自己房子的男人！
我觉得能在归来堂住宿是一种特殊的荣耀，因为直至今日，归来堂仍有厚重的历史价值。然而，当我的堂、表兄弟姐妹们知道这事时，都笑话我，说，我们内外亲人从来没一人住过归来堂，全都住酒店去了。看来，在陈氏家族中，我一定创造了某种历史了吧！我是第一个住过归来堂的人！
我的首次集美之行也是我的首次中国之行。我和经理长途跋涉，目的是开拓东南亚以外的业务。在中国，应河北省石家庄广告公司的邀请，我们参观了各种进出口公司（都是国有企业）。早在1975年，该公司就到新加坡我们的公司参观，请我们到中国大陆开设分公司。
当我踏上当时自己认为最冒险的旅途时，我对即将看到和经历的一切都没思想准备。在中国，有些东西尤为引人注目，比如全国范围内如火如荼的基础设施建设。我想，中国资源极其有限，中国人是怎样靠自己的聪明才智做到这一切的。我曾克服重重困难去买火车票、飞机票和长途汽车票。有一次，我们乘成渝线上的旅客列车，我只买到站票，不得不坐在车厢连接处的地板上……这样的经历本身就是冒险。在像上海这样的大城市，我也碰到酒店没有客房的尴尬。但是，我们所到之处都受到非常友好的接待，他们想尽各种办法，破格接待我们，让我们感到舒适，宾至如归，还带我们去参观当地名胜。
有时，有人会要求我谈谈我阿公。但是，我对我阿公几乎一无所知，因为我未见过他。在我们几个后辈成长过程中，我们的父母也几乎没和我们深入地谈过他。回新加坡后，我就开始阅读已出版的关于阿公的英文书，拿得到就读。我很感谢我父亲，他详细地给我讲了阿公晚年的故事。
我们艰难地走过大半个中国之后，集美学村可算得上是一段令人耳目一新的插曲。那里，天气没那么冷，到处是郁郁葱葱的亚热带草木，迎面吹来的是清新和煦的海风。那独具一格、引人入胜的建筑群给人一种舒适宜人的气氛。那时，即1985年前后，人们穿着朴素，但舒适，人人自带布袋或皮包，看不到随处乱扔的塑料袋！集美校委会用面包车载我们参观学校，我们看了校舍、体育场、运动场、学生宿舍及公园。
那时鳌园是给我印象最深的地方，当然今天仍是。鳌园坐落在巨大的人工湖龙舟池畔，每年夏天龙舟池都举行龙舟赛。鳌园宛如伸进大海的一只手指，是我阿公建造的，前面的公园是为纪念我阿公而建的。公园里有花园，鳌园内有风雨长廊，长廊的尽头是巍峨雄伟的集美解放纪念碑。纪念碑下方是阿公的陵墓，外形是一巨龟。在汉语中，“龟”与“回归”的“归”同音。“回归”是广大归国华侨华人所熟知的词。阿公陈嘉庚和他那一辈的华侨一样，希望年老后叶落归根，他要让这千百万华侨的梦想永存不衰。
与陈立人、陈君宝在陈嘉庚墓前
（作者：陈佩仪，陈嘉庚的孙女，陈嘉庚六公子陈元凯的女儿）
附: 《初回集美》原文
My first Visit to Jimei （Part I）
By Tan Poey Gee Peggy
It was the autumn of 1985 when I travelled with my
Singapore
manager from Fuzhou to Xiamen, on a long-distance bus. The single-lane road was dusty, much of the traffic was made up of trucks or buses, and it took us about 6 hours. All the passengers stopped at a village restaurant for lunch. I remember the hole-in-the-ground (maokeng?) toilet was at the end of a narrow footpath out in the middle of a rice field. This was also my first visit to
China
, and having travelled, on business, to 11 provinces and 16 cities over the course of 5 weeks, I am used to such conditions, and even often enjoyed a great variety of food, and never once got sick!
Along the highway, I was particularly struck by the beautiful scenery, reminding me of a Chinese brush painting. This was scenery I never saw in all the other provinces in
China
. It came in three main layers – the rice fields in the foreground, then a layer of deep green forests in the middle ground, then finally, in the background, the grey karst mountains, their features looking very dramatic. Thirty years later I tried to look for this, but nothing like it was found! Was it all in my imagination then?
My Mandarin was virtually non-existent, so my manager Mr Foo phoned my uncle Tan Jin Kiat (Chen Linjie) the day before, to say I was coming to Jimei. Uncle didn’t sound at all surprised, and just said I was most welcome. I think my father must have written to him earlier to say I was visiting Jimei.
When Foo and I got off the bus at the bus-stop outside Jimei, there was a man, half asleep, on a solitary trishaw (三轮车) parked there, waiting for customers. After making some enquiries, we piled all our luggage in the tricycle, with me sitting on top, Foo walking alongside, and that was how we travelled over the quaint bridge and arrived at the gate of the Chen Jiageng Gu Ju, in the heart of Jimei village.
Then I got the surprise of my life. Waiting patiently on two rows of the road leading up to the front door were at least 10 men, standing, welcoming me into the Gu Ju. Then, after sitting down to tea, uncle took us across the road to the Guilai Tang, and said we could stay here, as the building was constructed - after grandfather passed away - by Zhou Enlai for the descendants of Tan Kah Kee to live. It was a square single-storey building, designed in the traditional style, with a courtyard in the middle, and a hall with an ancestral table at one end. On 3 sides surrounding the central courtyard were three rectangular blocks of sleeping quarters. A stone statue of grandfather, seated (reminding me of Abraham Lincoln’s famous seated statue in Washington DC), faced the courtyard and the sea beyond.
Without thinking too much, I said yes, only to discover much later, that besides barely workable bathrooms (one attached to each room) there were absolutely no facilities. Our poor uncle had to bring beds, mattress, blankets, towels, etc. Not only that, he had to provide 3 meals a day for us in his home, which was just round the corner from Jiageng street. These meals were excellently prepared by Aunty – also Tiong Xin’s mother - in a very black kitchen. Uncle’s 3-storey home looked very basic to me, with bare grey cement walls, but he was very proud of it, and said this was the only house in the whole village which had a modern toilet, on the ground floor. And that each son (I think he had 4 or 5) not only had a bedroom but also a living room so that they would not have trouble finding a bride, since women would only marry a man who already possessed a room to himself!
I consider it a privilege to have stayed in Guilai Tang, since it had substantial historical value, even today. But when my cousins later found out, they laughed and said none of our relatives ever stayed in Guilai Tang at all, instead preferring to stay in hotels. So I must have made history of sorts in the Tan family.
My first visit to Jimei was also my first visit to
China
. My manager and I made this epic trip just to develop new business outside SE Asia. In the case of China, we visited various Import & Export companies – all state-owned – at the invitation of the Hebei Shijiazhuang Advertising Corporation, who specially visited our Singapore company in early 1875, and asked us to‘develop a new wing’.
When we embarked on what I consider one of the most adventurous trips I had understaken, I was not much prepared for what I saw and experienced. A few things stood out – the strain on infrastructure all over the country, and how well the Chinese managed this, with utmost ingenuity and limited resources. I experienced first hand the problem involved with getting a seat on a train or plane or bus, and I once had a ‘no-seat’ ticket, and sat on the floor of the couplings on the night train between Chengdu and Chongqing …an adventure in itself. I also experienced the crush of hotel rooms in some cities, like Shanghai. But at every stop we had very friendly contacts, people who went out of their way to make us comfortable, and showed us the local sights.
I was also sometimes asked to talk about my grandfather, a figure whom I hardly knew, as I never met him and my parents seldom discussed in depth with us when we were growing up. When I returned home, I began reading up on everything I could find, i.e. whatever that was published in English, and I was also grateful to my father for filling in the details in his later years.
Jimei school village was a pleasant interlude for us, after some hard travelling through
China
. The weather was warmer, there were sub-tropical trees and a nice seaside breeze, and best of all, the uniquely attractive architecture gave it a relaxed atmosphere. In 1985 the population dressed simply and comfortably, and everyone carried cloth or leather bags – no disposable plastics around! Jimei School Alumni took us on a tour of the schools in a passenger van and we drove past school buildings, sports fields, gymnasiums, student dormitories and parks.
Of course, the most impressive place was (and still is) the Aoyuan, which is located next to the big man-made lake that is the venue for the summer dragon boat race. Stretching like a finger out to sea, the Aoyuan was built by my grandfather and in front of it is a memorial park to grandfather. In the Aoyuan there is a long sheltered passage leading to an impressive cenotaph at the end. At the base of the cenotaph is his tomb, marked by a huge stone turtle (gui). Chinese for turtle, ‘gui’ is also a pun on hui gui, a popular term for Huaqiao returnees. Like all huaqiao of his generation, Tan Kah Kee wanted to keep alive the hopes of millions of huaqiao who yearned to return to the motherland during their old age.
