Jinjiang and Shishi

Abstract

My apologies for lumping together the two fine cities of Shishi (Stone Lion City, 石狮) and Jinjiang (晋江) in one chapter, but I am less familiar with these areas, even though they do have quite a few interesting historical sites. In fact, I have an entire book on Jinjiang sites, which was settled earlier than Quanzhou city proper, and is the home of many famous overseas Chinese, but I am personally familiar with only three: Cao’an Manichaean Temple (草俺摩尼教寺), Chendai Village’s Ding Clan Ancestral Temple (陈埭丁民回族祠堂), and the Ancient Kiln in Cizao (磁灶古窑址) (we’ll look at kilns and porcelain more closely in Dehua). But for the record, here are some key sites.

My apologies for lumping together the two fine cities of Shishi (Stone Lion City, 石狮) and Jinjiang (晋江) in one chapter, but I am less familiar with these areas, even though they do have quite a few interesting historical sites. In fact, I have an entire book on Jinjiang sites, which was settled earlier than Quanzhou city proper, and is the home of many famous overseas Chinese, but I am personally familiar with only three: Cao’an Manichaean Temple (草俺摩尼教寺), Chendai Village’s Ding Clan Ancestral Temple (陈埭丁民回族祠堂), and the Ancient Kiln in Cizao (磁灶古窑址) (we’ll look at kilns and porcelain more closely in Dehua). But for the record, here are some key sites.

Cao’an (草庵) Planet’s Last Temple to the Religion of Light. Manichaean Temple, not far from the Sisters-in-Law Tower, is the planet’s last bastions of the Persian religion Manichaeism, “The Religion of Light” (an esoteric combination of Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and any other religion that was handy). Mani’s followers arrived in China in the late 7th century—just about the same time as their arch rivals, the Muslims and Nestorian Christians.

The Persian founder Mani (216–276) taught that existence is nothing but an eternal battle between good and evil, light and dark. He adopted elements of many religions, reasoning that each contained at least a grain of truth. Mani’s malleable metaphysics appealed to St. Augustine, who followed the religion for a decade until his conversion to Christianity.

St. Augustine. The famous Catholic saint and scholar knew too well the eternal battle between good and evil—at least during his hormone driven youth. The intellectual genius partied by night and prayed by day: “God, grant me chastity—but not yet!” After his illegitimate teenage son died, he entered the Catholic clergy, denounced Mani, wrote a bestselling series of anti-Mani literature, and became a bishop and a saint. The jury is still out on where he ever achieved chastity, but from the expression on paintings of the man, I doubt it.

Tang Dynasty Chinese called the increasingly popular religion Moni, Momonifa (Law of Moni), Xiao Moni (Little Moni), Da Moni (Great Moni), etc., and after the Tang it was called Ming Jiao (Religion of Light). For 600 years, this “Religion of Light” found increasing acceptance throughout China, especially around Quanzhou. In 1946, workers outside Quanzhou’s Tonghuai Gate unearthed the tombstone of a high-level Yuan Dynasty clergymen responsible for governing foreign religions, including Manichaeism and Christianity.

Mani’s influence in Fujian was so extensive that there is even a small Mani shrine on the peak of Ningde’s remote Taimu Mountain, though today it is used by worshipers of the Taimu Goddess.

The growing popularity of the white-robed Manicheans, led by priests wearing violet headpieces, worried Buddhist competitors. The Buddhist history Fozu Tongji, compiled between 1258-1269, denounced Mani worshipers as vegetarian” devil worshipers. (Odd they should note the vegetarian aspect, since Buddhists too, in theory, avoided meat).

Mani’s minions worried the government—with good reason, it turned out. The politically-inclined Mani worshipers helped overthrow the Yuan government and enthrone Zhu Yuanzhang, who named his new dynasty “Ming”, and then rewarded the Ming Religion by banning it. Supposedly, one reason was that he objected to the Ming Religion having the same name as his new Ming Dynasty (which just proves China’s early concern for intellectual property rights).

Despite persecution, Mani’s religion kept a toehold in Quanzhou, which today boasts the planet’s last Mani temple—the Thatched Nunnery. It was built in 1339, after villagers had spent 26 years carving statues of Mani all over the cliffs of Huabiao Mountain. The artists must not have had a good photo to go by because Mani bears a striking resemblance to standard issue Chinese deities—except that he sports four braided dreadlocks, and has rays of light emanating from behind.

In spite of its uniqueness, some worshipers still think Mani is in fact Guanyin, the popular Goddess of Mercy. I asked a nun if they worshiped Mani or Buddha and she said: “Mani, of course!”

“What’s the difference between Mani and Buddha?” I asked her.

She pondered this, then said: “You’ll have to ask someone in charge, but there’s no one in charge at the moment.”

Chendai Village and Ding Clan Ancestral Hall. Chendai Village has so many Hui minority folks surnamed Ding that I had to drive at a snail’s pace lest I get a Ding in my bumper. Some of the Dings, with their big noses, curly hair and beards, looked like they were ready to burst out in Arabic, not Chinese. Many are not practicing Muslims, but they are fiercely proud of their ancestry, and their Arab forebears’ achievements. And modern Dings are quite the entrepreneurs as well!

Mr. Ding Jinhua (丁进华) gave me a tour of the Ding Clan Ancestral Hall (Hui Nationality Exhibition Hall, 陈埭丁民回族祠堂). This unusual ancestral hall is built in southern Fujian architectural style, but the decorations are Islamic, and it has been carefully designed to resemble the Chinese character “Hui” (回), with a square hall in the center of a larger square courtyard.

Pools. The ancestral hall is quite a museum, with three walls of photographs and displays behind glass. They have also prepared a nice little pamphlet on the history and contributions of the Ding Clan (but no English version).

I tried everything to get a good photo of the “Hui” shaped hall, including climbing to the tip top of the mosque. Mr. Ding solved the problem by leading me to the market across the street and borrowing a rickety 30-foot bamboo ladder. While two Muslims held the swaying ladder from below, I climbed it, praying silently that they held no historical grievances against Christians. But I made it to the roof, and snapped some good photos of both the hall and the pool in front. Buddhist temples have similar pools, which are used for gaining merit by freeing captive fish, but Muslims have no qualms eating fish.

On Ancestral Worship

But the foundations of ancestral worship are not laid on shadowy, visionary soil of myths and legends, but on substantial, solid, historical ground. Ancestral worship has its origin both in the family and nation and is both a family and a national custom. It is as old as the empire itself. Contemporary with the birth of the nation, it has become so interwoven in the warp and woof of its history, that to attempt to disengage the strings would be to destroy the whole fabric... No other one thing in its entire history has tended more to bind this people together or to perpetuate the nation than this universal respect (whether sincere or a sham) for the living and devotion for the dead; and no other one thing has so bound them to the dead past or so diverted their attention from the living future.

—Pitcher, In and About Amoy, 1912.

If the Shoe Fits. The Chinese Mainland produces over 50% of the world’s sports shoes 80% of these come from Fujian, and most of these are from China’s “Shoe Town”, Chendai Village.

Not even Imelda Marcos could have dreamed that this sleepy village would end up with over 1,000 shoe enterprises doing over 2 billion-yuan business annually, and have a US$22.3 million, 150,000-square-meter shoe market. Nearby Anhai Town is China’s largest leather tanning base, and Baiqi Town is the center for rubber sole production.

Quanzhou as a whole now has over 300,000 people employed in more than 4,000 industries producing every make of foreign and domestic shoe possible (excluding, possibly, horseshoes). In fact, Quanzhou produces fully 20% of the world’s sports and casual shoes. But no wonder. Quanzhou has 100,000 shoe salesmen, and 30 subsidiaries and agencies abroad.

Jinjiang, which produces over 500 million pairs of shoes annually, hosted the 1st Jinjiang International Shoe Fair in March, 1999. The four-day fair displayed over 5,000 kinds of shoes, shoe machines and shoe materials. Over 100,000 people took part in the show, 21 agreements were signed, and sales reached 1.3 billion yuan. In addition, two Hong Kong specialists gave lectures to 400 business and government leaders.

The latest in computerized design and production technology enables Quanzhou firms to not only keep quality high and costs low but also to go green. Many firms are substituting rubber for azo, and PU for PVC, using benzene-free glue, and replacing white glue laminators with thermosol versions of shoe parts.

For more on the Quanzhou shoe industry, please turn to the supplement at the end of this chapter.

Rizal International Shrine in Jinjiang. In 2002, Jinjiang invested 10 million yuan to create the five-hectare Rizal Memorial Park, with its 18.61-meter- high statue of Rizal (much higher than the 12-meter statue of Rizal in Manila). Filipino business leaders invested an additional 2 million yuan. Filipino House Speaker Jose de Venecia said that China’s park was a “great symbol of the 1,000-year-old friendship between our two nations”, and that “This Rizal Park in China helps elevate the status of our Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal as a hero for the whole Asian region.”

Rizal’s Humble Ancestral Home. The Rizal Memorial Park will become a must-see for Filipino-Chinese, 80% of whom, like Rizal himself, trace their roots to southern Fujian. But more impressive than the sprawling (and expensive) park is his tiny ancestral hovel in the little village right beside the park. It is amazingly small and in poor repair for a man of his stature, but refreshing. It shows where the man came from. In a few years it will probably have been replaced by some concrete monstrosity of an ancestral temple, with magnificent arches, Rizal idols, and calligraphy explaining how he descended from the heavens to save the Philippines.

Jose Rizal

The Filipino Hero From Quanzhou

Jose Rizal was born June 19, 1861 in Calamba, Philippines, and died December 30, 1896, in Manila. This patriot, physician and intellectual was an inspiration to many generations of Filipinos.

Rizal was the son of a wealthy landowner on the island of Luzon, and his mother was one of the most educated Filipino women at that time. Rizal studied medicine in the University of Madrid and became leader of the Filipino students in Spain. He pursued reform of Spanish rule in the Philippines, though he stopped short of demanding Filipino independence from Spain. In Rizal’s eyes, the Philippine’s primary enemy was not Spain, which was undergoing dramatic reform, but the Catholic faction that clung to power in Spain’s impoverished colony (Fig. 12.1).

Fig. 12.1

Rizal International Shrine

Rizal continued his medical studies in Paris and Heidelberg, and in 1886 he published his first novel, in Spanish. Noli e Tangere exposed the evils “of the Catholic friars” rule much as Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought to light the evils of America’s slavery.

Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892 to found a nonviolent reform society, La Liga Filipina, in Manila, but was exiled for four years to Mindanao, in the northwest, where he continued his scientific research and founded a school and hospital.

A nationalist secret society, the Katipunan, launched a revolt against Spain in 1896. Though Rizal had absolutely no connections with Katipunan, he was arrested, found guilty of sedition, and executed before a firing squad in Manila. The evening before he was executed, he wrote the Spanish masterpiece, Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell), which helped Filipinos realize that there was no alternative to independence from Spain.

Other Jinjiang Sites

Anping Bridge. The longest bridge on earth during the Middle Ages, it is still the longest stone bridge today. But given its length, avoid the midday heat. And while you’re in Anhai...

Anhai Starry Pagoda (Anhai Xingta, 安海星塔). Pagodas don’t excite me, usually, but the Starry Pagoda is very distinct. This beautiful red and white four-sided, five-level pagoda was built in 1629, and is elegant in its simplicity of design.

Dragon Mountain Temple’s 1,000-Handed Guanyin (Longshan Si Qianshou Guanyin). Taiwan’s famous Longshan Temple is an offshoot of this sprawling Buddhist complex, which was first built during the Sui Dynasty (581–618). A millennium later, this was one of the temples that Koxinga’s nemesis, General Shi Lang, helped to renovate. The Guanyin’s 1,000 hands, with an eye upon each palm, represent her omnipotence and omniscience, but a Buddhist abbot confided to me: “That’s just symbolic. If she really had 1,000 hands and eyes, she’d be quite a monster!”

Buddha and Relief Cliff Carvings of Nantian Temple (Nantian Si Shifo Moya Shike). Three cliffside carved stone Buddhas are said to be the crown jewel of southern Fujian stone carving. Nantian’s calligraphy is also popular, particularly the Quannan Foguo—Buddhist Kingdom of Quan written by Wang Yipeng (泉南佛国, 王一朋著).

Stone Lion City (Shishi). In just over a decade, the 1,300-year-old city of Shishi has metamorphosed from a backwater town into a modern center of commerce and industry. Shishi is now the garment capital of Fujian, and perhaps the largest garment center in Asia, and hosts the Cross-Straits Garment and Textile Expo.

Shishi’s more than 5,000 factories in the textile and garment industry did over 56 billion yuan in business in 2017, and the way things are going, businesses like the 5,000-square-meter Xinhu Bra and Underwear Factory aren’t going bust anytime soon.

Shishi Tour Sites

Sisters-in-Law (Gusao) Pagoda. If you get high on pagodas, head east to Shishi’s 21.65-meter-tall Sisters-in-Law Pagoda (Gusao Ta), which was built on Baogai Hill (宝盖山) in 1146. Women used to wait upon this hill for the return of husbands and sons from sea voyages.

The Legend. A Song Dynasty man sailed to Southeast Asia to seek his fortune and promised to return in three years. His wife and sister missed him so badly that they piled up stones by the river and watched for him, year after year, but he never returned. The two women died of grief, and the sympathetic villagers called the rock pile “Sisters-in-Law Tower”. And somewhere along the line (1146, actually), the rock pile metamorphosed into a four-story pagoda that is one of Quanzhou’s navigational landmarks even today.

Six Victory Pagoda (六胜塔) is located on the very northernmost tip of a Shishi peninsula. Description: tall.

Shishi’s Gold Coast Holiday Village (Shishi Huangjin Hai’an). The South Fujian Golden Seashore Holiday Village is quite a massive undertaking. The first phase included the Golden Beach Paradise, Yacht Club, Food Plaza, Seaside Resort, and China’s largest ocean theme park, the South Fujian Ocean World, which included an Aquarium, Dolphin Performance Hall, Diving, Underwater Performances, etc.

Shishi has miles of beautiful beaches. Yakou (衙口), just a few kilometers south of Shishi, has one of the finest stretches of sand in China. While you’re in Yakou, you might want to visit Shi Clan’s Ancestral Temple (衙口施氏祠).

Inway Ni—A Young Quanzhou Entrepreneur. Inway, from Anhai, was one of the most driven MBA students I’ve ever had. Even before graduating he had started several businesses. But he also knows balance. When his wife had a daughter, he exclaimed to me happily: “Before, I was a full-time businessman. Now I’m a full-time father—and part-time everything else!”

FormalPara The Quanzhou Tiger

“Asian Tigers” usually brings to mind some Asian countries, but Quanzhou is a tiger in its own right.

During Marco Polo’s days, when Zaytun was the start of the Maritime Silk Road and a global commercial and cultural crossroads, the city traded in everything imaginable. Today, the new Quanzhou seems to actually produce about everything imaginable, and has been making great contributions to Fujian and all of China. Over the past two decades, Quanzhou’s economy has accounted for one-fourth that of Fujian Province, and 1.3% that of the entire nation!

Private enterprise is playing a pivotal role, accounting for 80% of Quanzhou’s GDP as early as 2000.

Cyber Expo—The E-Silk Road. Quanzhou has so many thousands of enterprises that it can overwhelm the potential buyer or investor. Fortunately, the city has embraced the latest Internet technology and practices to create a Cyber Expo open to the world 24 hours a day, all year round.

Early on the Quanzhou government recognized the growing role of e-commerce and net marketing, and in September 1999 initiated the first online product expo (the Never Closing Expo). The Cyber Expo offers each participant a standard cyber-booth, which includes a home page, sub-domain name, e-mail box, pages for 10 products with text and photos, order-and-pay system, information release system, and net management system. The expo website also offers cyber booths for companies outside of Quanzhou.

The Cyber Expo’s 1st session included 1,145 enterprises and over 12,000 projects. The 2nd session, opened December 8, 2000, had 1,500 companies and 20,000 products. The first two sessions resulted in over 1,000 orders with a value of US$ 17 million. The 3rd session, which opened November 3, 2001, doubled the previous session, with 2,580 companies and over 30,000 products.

The 4th session of China Enterprises and Products Online Expo, (November 2, 2002—November 1, 2003) drew over 3,000 companies from many industries, including textile, shoes and clothing; construction and building materials; arts and crafts; food and beverage; hardware and machinery, petrochemical; electronics and information; tourism and service, and such new ventures as biology and medicine, new materials, environmental protection, and deep processing of farm and sideline products.

The 4th session also held concurrently the 2nd session of China Enterprise Cyber-Marketing Cooperation Conference, and was attended by global business and government representatives, and cyber-marketing experts.

China Enterprises and Products Online Expo is sponsored by Quanzhou Municipal Government, Fujian Economy and Trade Commission, Fujian Township Enterprise Bureau, and organized by the Quanzhou Township Enterprise Bureau, insuring participants of a top-quality program.

FormalPara Strike Gold at CIFIT (China International Fair for Investment and Trade)

The best place to scout out business opportunities, whether in Xiàmén or elsewhere, is our annual CIFIT (Zhōngguó Guójì Tóuzī Màoyì Qiàtán Huì, 中国国际投资贸易洽谈会).

Every two years on September 8, CIFIT hosts pavilions with investment opportunities in every province in China, from coastal Fujian to the Himalayan heights of Tibet.

CIFIT has been responsible for over half of foreign investment to small and medium enterprises, and for much of large businesses as well, with over 100,000 visitors and exhibitors from over 144 countries and regions, and over 2,000 international and governmental institutions, business associations and enterprises. CIFIT’s over 1,800 forum and seminar speakers have included top Chinese leaders, Nobel Prize winners, United Nations officials and vice premiers of various countries. As of 2005, CIFIT had witnessed the signing of some 11,362 investment projects worth over US$60 billion.

Want to Know More? Municipal government officials are glad to provide information and materials on investment opportunities, and other “Laowai” and “Laonei” businessmen should also have a good handle on how to go about setting up shop, and home, in Xiamen.