Overseas Travel: Afternoon Caf é

Trendy News Client Zhou Songyi

On weekends, return to my hometown. After lunch, I accompanied a few friends to visit the Qingtian Overseas Chinese History Museum. After coming out of the restaurant and waiting for the high-speed train for a few hours, a group of high school classmates invited me to sit in an old caf é in Hecheng. We found a seat by the window and sat down. Outside the window was the famous Linjiang Road. Perhaps due to the hot weather and sparse pedestrians on the road, the air roots of a row of banyan trees hanging by the river swayed with the wind, cutting the sunlight into small pieces. There are several Spanish hams and some pickled olives hanging in the glass cabinet behind the coffee shop counter. My classmate told me that the boss came back from Spain. This shop has been open for many years and has a good reputation. Inside the house, the classic Spanish music "El Mismo SOL" is playing. The rhythm of the music, the freshly ground aroma of coffee, and the mellow aroma of red wine blend together, inexplicably making people feel at ease.

Not long after, a group of elderly people came in. They also skillfully occupied a long table by the window, each ordering a cup of Italian espresso and some Western snacks, then took out their phones and gathered together to learn how to use WeChat videos. The old man with graying hair looks to be in his 80s, as if he has just returned from abroad to visit relatives. He is wearing reading glasses and poking the screen with his index finger, as if dealing with some stubborn mechanism. Press this, yes, press that again… "The person next to him, who is younger than him, was even more anxious. Finally, a child with a mixed race face popped up on the other end of the screen, who might be the grandson of an old man. They were chatting in Chinese, foreign languages, and Aotian dialect, occasionally emitting a few hearty laughs. The boss's wife didn't mind refilling the hot water for them and whispered to us, "This old gentleman, surnamed Lin, comes from Yamaguchi. He just returned from abroad last month and said he wants to settle down in China and doesn't want to go abroad anymore. Now he invites friends to come to my shop for coffee every Tuesday afternoon, without hesitation. A few days ago, he just registered for WeChat in China and learned how to send red envelopes. He's so happy that he's like celebrating Chinese New Year

Time flies, time flies like a shuttle. For elderly people who return home from overseas, every little detail of their hometown will always remain in their hearts. When they were young, they crossed the ocean, experienced hardships and struggles, started from scratch, and realized their life value from scratch in a foreign land. When I am old, I return to my hometown and search for the initial innocence and beauty, hoping to live the remaining days with seriousness. Comrades from the Overseas Chinese Federation told me, "In recent years, there have been many elderly people who have returned from overseas, and they all have the tradition of loving their ancestors and hometown. Some of them have saved up their entire lives overseas to build ancestral halls, while others go around their hometowns to see. They form different groups every day, invite different friends and family members to eat and drink, and some go to the Overseas Chinese History Museum as volunteer guides every week – those faded passports, yellowed letters, and edged suitcases are all alive in their mouths, all legendary stories of Qingtian people walking the world." Suddenly, I remembered a word: "Falling leaves return to their roots. But upon closer inspection, they are not like fallen leaves, but more like old trees that have rooted their roots back into the soil and grown new branches and leaves in their later years.

Photo source: "Matsuma Gakuyu" WeChat official account

In the afternoon, when there were not many people and we were chatting, the caf é welcomed the third group of customers. A group of young people pushed the door in, men and women, carrying backpacks and looking tired. They sat in the corner, speaking in a low voice. I heard a few words, and the general idea is that someone's entrepreneurial project has not received financing, someone is considering returning to China but worried about the shortage of overseas social security, and someone's family is urging them to go back for blind dates, but they can't let go of their newly established career here. A girl wearing glasses gave a bitter smile and said, "My dad said I spent so much money studying abroad, and now that I'm back in China and earning 8000 yuan, it's better to stay in my own store and serve dishes." Another boy buried his face in his palm and said, "But there are opportunities here

Out of my professional instincts, I had a few conversations with them in the past. During our casual conversation, I learned that one of them had a father who was also my former colleague. They were all born abroad and came back to start a business a year ago, which was quite difficult. These new generations in the overseas Chinese community are the 'overseas Chinese youth' whom we have high hopes for. In recent years, our governments at all levels and the Overseas Chinese Federation have carried out many entrepreneurial activities for overseas Chinese and youth, introduced talent policies, and built communication platforms. But at this moment, sitting in this caf é, they don't have any grand ambitions in their eyes, only a sense of exhaustion caught in the middle – they can't go back to their parents' homeland, and they haven't yet established themselves in a new land. Some people call this the 'pains of globalization', but for them, this pain is real. The girl wearing glasses answered a phone call later, her tone suddenly softened, and she coaxed the person on the other end of the phone with Qingtian dialect: "Grandma, I'll go back to see you next month. Really, I won't lie to you this time…" After hanging up the phone, she was stunned for a long time.

What really matters to me is the middle-aged man sitting in the corner without saying a word. I didn't notice him when I came in, and it wasn't until he asked the landlady to cook him a bowl of egg noodles that I saw someone sitting in the corner. He was wearing a shirt that had been ironed flat, and the watch on his wrist indicated that the price was quite high, but he looked as if something had been taken away and huddled in a chair motionless. The landlady obviously knew him. She brought him a cup of herbal tea, and he nodded, his lips moving, but ultimately remained silent.

Later, I heard from the boss that he went out in the 1990s and had been in the leather goods business in Italy for 20 years, making money, registering, and taking over all the family members. But my mother refused to leave. As an octogenarian, she said she would die in China. He has been running around for years, and his business has gradually been replaced by locals. His connections in China have long been cut off, and he doesn't know where to start when he wants to come back. Last month, his mother fell down and rushed back to accompany him for over a month. The company was already struggling to hold on.

What do you think I am? "He finally spoke, speaking into his phone, probably an old friend. Italians say I'm Chinese, Chinese say I'm Italian, even my son only speaks Italian to me. I'm kicked around like a ball… "The voice grew lower and lower, and finally only the buzzing sound of the air conditioner remained. The shadow of the banyan tree outside the window stretched long, covering him like a gray net.

We sat in the coffee shop for nearly 3 hours, and I counted: the elderly have left, satisfied with learning new skills; The young people have also left, shouting at each other to hold on a little longer; The middle-aged man was the last to get up. He straightened his shirt collar, tidied up his expression, picked up his egg noodles, pushed the door open, and waved to call for an electric bike. When he got on the car, his phone screen lit up briefly, probably indicating a message from the other side of the sea. He looked down and didn't answer.

The landlady started wiping the table, humming an old song while wiping. I could tell it was' Olive Tree '. Don't ask me where I come from, my hometown is far away… "She hummed softly, as if afraid of disturbing something.

As I walked out of the caf é, I remembered a scene I saw at noon in the Overseas Chinese History Museum: a white haired old man was explaining his old passport to his granddaughter in a glass cabinet, and the little girl listened absentmindedly, looking down at her phone. The glass reflected the shadows of two people – one walking forward and the other retreating, but strangely enough, they were on the same piece of glass, very close, very close

Please indicate the source when reprinting