Relatives of Li Lanfeng, who was taken to Taiwan, donate letters she wrote to her family to the China Museum for Fujian-Taiwan Kinship in 2020. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Sincerity, regret

In 2018, the Dongshan Archives received a letter donated by a local resident who was about to pass away.

The letter written by his father, who was a veteran, had been cherished by his late mother.

After being taken to Taiwan, Shen Mingchuan started a new family but he missed his family in Dongshan. In 1975, when he was elderly, he wrote a letter to his first wife and entrusted his relatives in Singapore to get it to the Chinese mainland.

Shen wrote: "Dear wife, we have been separated for a long time, and I miss you … I haven't fulfilled my responsibility of supporting the family, but I am grateful for your hard work and dedication in raising our son to adulthood."

He told his wife that he had a small business in Taiwan and was barely making a living. Due to the decadeslong separation between the two sides, he felt there was no hope of returning home. As a result, he had started a new family in Taiwan and had children, he revealed to her.

"Though full of regret, the husband wrote with great sincerity. It was filled with nostalgia and a great sense of guilt toward his wife," said Shen Fushan, deputy director of the archives.

Another letter sent from Taiwan took 43 years to arrive. Before veteran Yan Luoguo passed away in 1976 in Taiwan, he entrusted a fellow villager with a letter to his family in Dongshan. The letter contained a passbook with an amount of 18,000 yuan and a ring. Yan requested that his remains be returned home in the future.

However, due to the situation at the time, his friend was unable to return to the mainland and deliver the letter.

After this friend passed away, the letter was passed on to various family members. After many twists and turns, the letter finally reached Yan's descendants in Dongshan in 2018. They followed the request in the letter and Yan's ashes were taken back to his hometown the same year.