Helen Deng

REBUILT 10 years ago, Huang’s family temple in Shangmeilin Village, Futian District is lucky to have survived.

“When we decided to rebuild the family temple in 1996, half of the land where the temple used to exist had been sold to a developer. We persuaded the developer into keeping the land for us,” said 60-year-old Huang Bangxian, head of the Huang clan in Shangmeilin.

But the villagers spared little expense in re-creating the place of worship. In contrast to the nearby handshake buildings (so called because they are so close that people in two buildings can shake hands), they lavished 426 square meters of the valuable land to rebuild the traditional courtyard house.

The temple meant a lot for the Huangs. The most important function, of course, is to house ancestors’ shrines for their descendents to pay tribute.

In the temple’s inner room, there are hundreds of stones carved with the names of those who have passed away. The one on the top is of Huang Meizhuang, the 10th-generation child of Huang Motang who was widely regarded as the earliest of the Huangs to settle in Shenzhen. The latest ones are of Huang Motang’s 23rd generation.

The temple is named after Huang who built the original during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The former temple was demolished in 1958, when people took away the wooden girders to build houses for the socialist commune. When the temple was rebuilt in 1996, only two stone plinths remained and have been used in the new temple.

The family history books had also been lost and before the temple was rebuilt, people had to ask for the ancestors’ names family by family to re-write the family tree. Finally the family history book was rewritten and distributed to each household.

The Huangs would burn license and offer gifts to their ancestors to show their respect at important festivals. They would also bring their newborn baby boys to the temple to “show” to the ancestors. Three stone jars holding incense ash are almost full.

To commemorate the completion of the temple, the Huangs hold an annual big-basin dish feast (a traditional dish for Guangdong coastal areas, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia with more than 10 courses placed in a big basin) at the temple on every 16th day of the 10th lunar month. At its peak the temple housed over 200 tables, with Huangs from as far as Jiangxi Province invited to attend. The pomp of the feast can be imagined with tables and chairs filling the temple.

For villagers, the temple is also an important place for socializing, with children playing games and adults playing mahjong.

Leaders of the clan, such as Huang Bangxian, make decisions on clan affairs in a small office in the temple. Pictures of fully attired Huang Xiaoshan, widely regarded as the original ancestor of the Huangs in South China, and his three wives, hang on the wall.