Su Guangming (Photo: Huilong Town)
Note: The following is narrated in the first person by overseas Chinese Su Guangming.
My name is Su Guangming, and I serve as an adviser at the Huilong office of Tiy Loy Company LTD, an overseas Chinese company based in Australia.
The recent hit film Dear You features an institution called "Qiaopi bureau"—an agency that helped overseas Chinese send remittances and letters home. In many ways, its role resembles the work of our company, which continues to operate today as an important bridge between overseas Chinese communities and their hometowns.
Our company was founded in 1887 by some of the first emigrants from Huilong residing in Australia. At that time, frequent floods along the Xijiang River severely disrupted local life in Huilong and surrounding areas, many people from Gaoyao were forced to leave home and seek livelihoods abroad.
Transportation was extremely inconvenient then. Before the age of air travel, journeys between China and Australia depended entirely on ships, with a round trip taking up to two months. Moreover, official remittance channels were also immature, making it difficult even to send letters or remit money home.
So villagers turned to mutual help. For example, when my grandfather returned to China, he would take letters and money on behalf of fellow villagers and deliver them personally to their families. Over time, this mutual-aid practice became institutionalized, eventually evolving into Tiy Loy Company LTD.
Later, our company established branches in Hong Kong and Huilong, forming an informal trust network together with its Australian headquarters. Its primary function was to help overseas Gaoyao villagers remit money, deliver letters, and transport goods. It also served as a communication hub, allowing villagers in China and their relatives abroad to stay informed about one another's lives.
I believe the company's survival over more than a century depends not only on increasingly organized systems, but also on trust rooted in shared hometown identity and collective memories. We all came from the same place, shared the same longing for home, and naturally trusted one another.
Tiy Loy Company LTD has witnessed the history of Huilong's overseas Chinese communities and the way generations of migrants rebuilt fragmented family ties through trust, loyalty, and mutual support. For me, this is far more than a job. It is a way to safeguard the collective memory of overseas Chinese from Huilong.
Reporter: Liu Yuheng
Text: Tong Hua
Revised by Huang Qini
