In 1991, a letter from Wenchang, Hainan, crossed the sea to Muar, Johor, Malaysia. Its recipients, descendants of the Fu family whose ancestors had once left Hainan for Southeast Asia, carefully preserved it.

Thirty-five years later, following the return address on the back of the yellowed envelope, Fu Houte traveled more than 2,000 kilometers from Malaysia back to Wenchang, reuniting with relatives he had never met. One family letter brought together two branches of the Fu family and fulfilled a homecoming wish carried across three generations and nearly a century.

An old letter reconnects a family

"The entire search for my relatives was incredibly dramatic; it felt like a scene from a movie," exclaimed Fu Houte after arriving with his family at Haikou Meilan International Airport on August 29.

Fu Houte (center in grey) greets a cousin he had never met before at Haikou Meilan International Airport on August 29

At the end of March, Houte visited his grandfather Fu Youning's grave in Malaysia and started talking with relatives about the family’s ancestral home. He found himself wondering: What was his grandfather’s hometown like? Were there still relatives?

"My uncle brought out an old letter from 1991," Houte recalled.

The envelope bore a return address: Deqing Village, Wencheng Town, Wenchang, Hainan, China.

"I wanted to find this place," he said.

Houte started searching online for information about the Fu clan in Hainan and Deqing Village. His search led him to a Hainan Daily report about the Fu clan in Hainan and their newly revised family genealogy, which was later donated to the Hainan Archives.

"I wanted to fulfill my grandfather’s and my father’s wish to visit Deqing Village, and I also wanted to have my name added to the genealogy," he explained.

He left a brief message along with his contact details on the Hainan Archives' official WeChat account, and shared the article.

"I didn’t expect too much. I just wanted to give it a try."

A few days later, Wang Caifeng, the Hainan Daily reporter who had written the story, contacted him.

"I thought, since he was a reporter, maybe we could start by talking," Houte recalled.

That was how the connection began.

Wang then contacted Fu Qifu, vice president of the Hainan Fu Clan Association. After Fu Qifu shared the request, clan members began providing possible leads. While checking the Fu genealogy, he found one name: Houzheng. It was the same name that appeared on the 1991 letter sent from Hainan. Wang quickly relayed the information to Fu Houte, and Fu Houfei, a Deqing Village official, offered further clues.

On April 4, Houte received Houzheng’s contact details.

"Once I got his contact information, I added him on WeChat and sent him a photo of the letter," Houte said.

On the other end of the conversation, Houzheng, still living in Deqing Village, immediately confirmed its provenance. It was the very letter he had written to relatives overseas decades earlier.

The reunion had begun.

A hug after decades of waiting

For Fu Houzheng and his wife, August 29 was a day of both excitement and nerves. Relatives from Malaysia whom they had never met were finally coming home to Hainan.

Meanwhile, Fu Houte and his family were also getting ready for their over 2,000-kilometer journey. While waiting at the airport, Houte served as the family's "cameraman" while his older daughter took on the role of "reporter," capturing the first moments of their trip to Hainan.

Back in Deqing Village, Houzheng and his wife had already packed coconuts from their own trees and a bunch of local bananas to bring to the airport as welcome gifts.

"I wanted my family to have some coconut water from home," Houzheng said.

On the way to the airport, Houzheng shared more of the family’s history.

"My grandfather, Fu You’an, and Houte’s grandfather, my second granduncle Fu Youning, both traveled to Southeast Asia," he said. "My father came back from Southeast Asia in 1952 and later had my sister and me... My grandmother passed away before I was born, and my grandfather later died overseas as well."

Born in the 1950s, Fu Houzheng still remembers exchanging letters with his second granduncle. However, since his father passed away when he was only three, much of his father’s personal history remains unknown to him. He remembers that from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, a letter would arrive from Malaysia almost every Chinese New Year. Those messages from thousands of kilometers away meant a great deal to him.

"My second granduncle cared about us very much," Houzheng said, his voice warm with emotion. "Life was challenging for him overseas, but he always tried to include some money in his letters to help with our household expenses."

At around 3 p.m., Houzheng, his wife Weng Xiuming, and a reporter waited at the airport. Houte sent a message saying the plane had landed and the family was waiting for their luggage. As passengers streamed out of the arrivals gate, Houzheng kept glancing at a family photo Houte had sent, worried he might miss them.

At 4:27 p.m., Fu Houte and his family of six appeared at the arrivals gate.

"Honestly, I felt a bit nervous since we had never met before," Houte said.

"But the moment I saw my cousin Houzheng, his build and appearance immediately reminded me of my father’s generation. We hugged and exchanged greetings, and I could sense his happiness too."

"That kind of connection through blood doesn’t need many words."

It was a reunion the family had waited a very long time for.

The way home

On September 1, after spending two days in Haikou, Fu Houte and his family set out for Wenchang. As the car entered Deqing Village, Fu suddenly found himself overwhelmed.

"I was nervous. It was hard to put into words," he said. "Perhaps this is what people mean when they talk about feeling anxious as they finally get close to home."

"As the car drove into the village, I started to picture what my grandfather's old house might have looked like."

He soon had his answer.

The walls were weathered, but the house still retained the distinctive architecture of northern Hainan: a central living room with a bedroom on either side. Looking across the house, rows of homes extended in a neat, orderly line. If all the front doors were open, a person could see directly through from the first house right to the last.

Relatives told Houte that during Chinese New Year, someone standing at the far end could look ahead and see all the households sharing their reunion dinners.

"Just imagining that warms me to the core," Houte said.

What moved him even more was entering the Fu ancestral hall. Facing the ancestral tablets, he bowed, kowtowed, and offered incense.

"Seeing so many tablets of our ancestors helped me understand what a clan really means," he said. "I felt that I was no longer someone drifting far from home. I finally had my big family behind me."

Houte had done considerable research before making the trip. Before leaving Malaysia, he researched Deqing Village, Fu Wenzhong, the founding ancestor of the Fu clan branch that moved to Hainan, and studied books about "guofanke," Chinese migrants who traveled to Southeast Asia for work. He wanted to understand more about the history of those who had left Hainan for Southeast Asia.

The Fu family in Malaysia celebrating the birthday of Fu Youning (center)

His grandfather, Fu Youning, left Wenchang in the 1930s, crossed the sea, and eventually put down roots in Malaysia. Why did he leave?

Before the trip, Houte invested a lot of time in seeking an answer. But after arriving at his grandfather's birthplace and discovering his roots, he realized the answer itself mattered less.

"My grandfather never returned to his homeland while he was alive. My father also used to talk about coming back to see it," he said.

"Today, we finally made it here. That alone means a great deal."

Two genealogies, and a new beginning

In Deqing, Houte shared meals and conversations with his relatives and added them on WeChat.

"Even after many generations apart, when we met, there was still this indescribable sense of familiarity," he marveled.

He also met many other members of the Fu clan in the village.

"It was my first meeting with any of them. But once we said our names, I felt an invisible connection, as our names shared the same origin."

Houte received the four weighty tomes that comprise the Fu clan genealogy as gifts.

Fu Houfei reminded him:

"When you get back to Malaysia, please compile a list of all your family members' names and send it to me. We will include them in the next genealogy update."

Houte's family in Malaysia also keeps a handwritten genealogy record. It is a thin notebook with yellowing pages, but most of the handwriting remains clearly legible. It records information about the family’s ancestors and branches. One genealogy is thick, the other thin; one newly compiled, the other old and handwritten. Together, they trace the Fu family’s migration, growth, and lineage across generations.

For Fu Houte, this journey was not an ending. It was a beginning.

While in Wenchang, he also visited Wennan Old Street.

"I was instantly transported back to Malaysia," he said.

The street features qilou arcaded buildings that blend Chinese and Western architectural styles. Earlier generations of Hainanese migrants returning from Southeast Asia brought back not just wealth but also new ideas, knowledge, and architectural influences absorbed overseas.

"And it wasn’t just Wenchang. Haikou was also very different from what I had imagined," he added.

During two days in the city, he and his family visited Haikou Historical and Cultural Quarter and the Hainan Museum.

Fu Houzheng and his wife pose for a photo with Fu Houte and his family at Meilan Airport

What surprised him was not only the old architecture, but also the city’s modern side: high-rise buildings, broad roads, and the visible pace of development. He said the opening-up policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port made him feel that Hainan and Southeast Asia had never been closer.

"I think I’m starting to fall in love with Hainan."