The National Museum of China has collected 32,000 family letters
from domestic and overseas Chinese in eight months after launching
a campaign to save written documents reflecting historical folk
custom.
The family letters serve as a guide to family life during the
dynasties of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) with
contents covering parenthood, filial piety, brotherhood, love as
well as army service and overseas life.
Lu Neng from southwest China's Sichuan
Province donated the only family letter left over by his uncle
Lu Gengfu who died at the age of 26 for the revolutionary cause as
one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China in its early
years.
The letter offers an important historical reference to the North
Expedition, a civil war from 1926 to 1927.
The museum will continue to solicit family letters from domestic
and overseas Chinese and hold the first forum on Chinese family
letters in 2006.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2006)
