INTERVIEW OF FOO CHIH SIN BY THE FOO CLAN ASSOCIATION 1987

Village on Hainan Island mystery solved! It all started with a question from Michele and Violet. "Does anyone know the location of our village on Hainan Island? A name perhaps?" I put this question out on our Whatsapp Broadcast Group and it came back with a few helpful hits from:

1) Yvonne who graciously contacted Foo Chee Jan

2) Uncle Chee Chin (who is highly proficient in the use of Deep Seek (another version of Chat GPT)

3) Shiang Hui, who connected me with Ian Foo who is very active with The Foo Clan Association.

A little closer. We had the name of the village but we were just missing the name of the city within Wenchang County.

I contacted Ian and he arranged for us to talk to someone there and off to the FCA (now located in Geylang) Michele, Violet and I went. They have a digital version of their Gynealogy Chart which would, we were hopeful, bring us to the answer we were seeking. There was one hitch... it required that we input the names of our ancestors in Chinese characters. (which of course proved to be a major hurdle) Our visit turned out to be less than fruitful.

I then recalled that in my first conversation with Ian Foo that he mentioned having visited Uncle Chih Sin in Robin Road for a short interview for publication in the clan's 100th Anniversary Magazine in 1987. Uncle Chih Sin was President of The Foo Clan from 1962 to1964 and stepped down as Treasurer in 1965. He continued as a trustee for many years after that.

Here is a photo that Ian Foo shared with me. I have included a translated version (not the most accurately translated because I used Google Translate which sometimes translates literally)

Photo taken from The Foo Clan Association's 100th Anniversay magazine

Translated using Google Translate

So the answer to the question on where our family is from:

Xiashuitun Village, located in Huiwen City in Wenchang County, on Hainan Island