On Meizhou Island, the rich flavor of Nanyang coffee meets the thousand-year-old Mazu culture. It bears witness to a two-way journey across Indonesia and Meizhou, connecting overseas Chinese communities with their ancestral homeland.
Separated by vast mountains and seas, faith that has been passed down through the same lineage remains stronger.
The Mazu connection
Chen Qianfan of Putian Youpin Coffee Co., Ltd., from Batam Island in Indonesia, has lived in Indonesia for many years and has faithfully upheld the Mazu faith across generations. For them, Meizhou Island has never been a distant foreign place name. It is the roots of their homeland deeply embedded in their blood, and the eternal spiritual home of overseas Chinese.
Over the years, Chen Qianfan's family has always kept their ancestral land in mind and taken an active part in cultural exchange activities on Meizhou Island, the hometown of Mazu. Time and again, crossing the sea to return, they have truly felt the warmth of their ancestral land and gained a deep understanding of the profound bond shared by Chinese communities at home and abroad, rooted in the same origin and united in heart and purpose.
Moments of cultural exchange time and again have made the original intention of carrying forward Mazu culture, connecting homeland ties across mountains and seas, and giving back to the development of their hometown ever more firm in Chen Qianfan's heart.
Cultural heritage
How can the thousand-year-old Mazu culture move beyond tradition and into daily life? How can overseas Chinese be a bridge so that homesickness across mountains and seas can take root?
Chen Qianfan gave the gentlest answer: use coffee as the medium and culture as the soul, so that Mazu culture can permeate everyday life.
Abandoning rigid ways of cultural communication, it passes on the classics in forms that the public finds more appealing and easier to accept. Youpin Coffee deeply integrates the rich, full-bodied coffee culture of Nanyang with the solemn and warm culture of Mazu, giving the thousand-year-old Mazu culture fresh vitality in the new era.
Connecting the diaspora across mountains and seas
A cup of coffee carries not only flavor, but also the homeland feelings of overseas Chinese.
Youpin Coffee has always been committed to building a heartwarming bridge for cultural exchange between Indonesia and Meizhou, showing overseas Chinese in every way the new look and strong development potential of Meizhou, the ancestral homeland. It hopes to empower hometown ties through industry, attract more overseas compatriots to return home to seek their roots and start businesses, take root in their native land, build their hometown, and continue the warm story between overseas Chinese and their ancestral homeland.
This heartfelt longing to return home across mountains and seas is also a shared feeling among countless overseas Chinese.
Empowering the Return Home
Coffee trainer Jacky is one of the many wanderers who have returned home.
"My grandfather was from Meizhou Island," Jacky told us. Since childhood, he has always heard his family speak of it. In the elders' stories, Meizhou Island is beautiful and rich in culture, a sacred homeland of Mazu and the place all overseas travelers long for.
He had never been there, yet he had already grown to yearn for it; separated by mountains and seas, he has always kept his homeland in his heart. This attachment to home, hidden deep within him, has accompanied him through the passing years.
Now that he has set foot on Meizhou, this fertile land, and seen for himself the strong cultural and tourism atmosphere and the rapid changes in its development, Jacky felt deeply moved and honored.
From hearing of the homeland's renown to putting down roots there in person, this journey across mountains and seas finally fulfilled a long-held homesickness.
Remembering the source when drinking water, and giving back to the place of one's roots. As a professional coffee trainer, Jacky carries a sincere sense of purpose and hopes to leave the coffee skills and industry experience he has accumulated over the years in Meizhou.
He hopes to help upgrade and develop the local coffee industry, allowing Nanyang-style coffee culture and local Mazu culture to blend deeply and complement each other, and bringing fresh, trendy energy into Meizhou's cultural and tourism industry.
At the same time, he sincerely hopes that more young overseas Chinese can cross mountains and seas and return to their ancestral homeland.