Zhu Zhenming’s Another Journey to Africa Making Inquiries About Guandi Culture  

In early spring of February 2009, Zhu Zhengming, the Secretary-General of Hubei Provincial Sino-African Business Council went to Africa and arrived in Mozambique with the Hubei provincial government visiting delegation .Mozambique is located at the southeastern tip of Africa and adjacent to the Indian Ocean, with a coastline of more than 2600 km connecting numerous series of exotic charming gulfs.

In his spare time after the busy investigation, Zhu Zhengming who came to Africa for a third time didn’t forget to make inquiries about Guandi culture in Africa. Accompanied by the well-known African scholars and Mr. Huo Jianping, President of Kindle Construction Company in Mozambique, Zhu Zhengming and other inquiring members found Mr. Ren Nanhua who is the vice-chairman of Overseas Chinese Association in Mozambique. They went together to make inquiries about the old site of Guandi Temple and found the treasured Guandi Statue in the Mozambique National Art Museum. Meanwhile, they heard a lot of touching related stories.

◆  In 1903, Guandi Temple was built in the capital of Mozambique.

The rise and fall of Guandi culture in Mozambique is closely related to the migration and growth of the overseas Chinese in Mozambique, the turmoil caused by war and peace in Mozambique and the Chinese nation's prosperity and opening-up.

In 1903, more than 280 overseas Chinese settled in Maputo. An architectural technician with pioneering spirit named Xie San (Portuguese Ja Assam) donated his own land for free. In 1903 he raised funds to build the Chinese Association, Guandi Temple and later extended the Chinese Primary School. During the several decades after the building of Guandi Temple was completed, the Temple has been a gathering place for overseas Chinese. The overseas Chinese’s holidays, weddings, birthdays and other celebrations as well as the funerals of the deceased old overseas Chinese are all held in the temple.

◆  In 1976, Guandi temple was mystically “confiscated” 

In September 1964, the Mozambique Liberation Front Party in the northern plateau launched an armed uprising and fired the first shot of the War of Independence against Portuguese colonial rule. The overseas Chinese in Maputo withdrew from Mozambique and subsequently closed the Chinese Primary School. In June, 1975, the People's Republic of Mozambique declared its founding. Following the practice of China and the former Soviet Union, the newly-founded Mozambique government confiscated the former government’s banks, schools, hospitals, factories, temples and so on as state-owned assets. And Chinese temples, Chinese Association and Chinese primary schools in Mozambique were all confiscated for unknown reason. Thus Guandi Temple was nowhere to be found.

◆  Guandi shrine is treasured in National Art Museum in Mozambique

◆  Accompanied by Mr. Ren Nanhua and President Huo Jianping, Zhu Zhengming and other inquiring members came to National Art Museum in Mozambique. After an effort of spiritual and material negotiation, they were finally allowed to enter the most concealed treasure house in the basement of National Art Museum.

They went down the spinning stairs and entered the treasure house. The sight before their eyes made them dumbfounded: The basement with an area of 100 square meters was densely surrounded by barbed wire. Inside the wire enclosure piled up a great variety of precious artwork from different times and different countries and ethnic groups such as wood carvings, bronze castings, clay sculpture and many other articles of which we couldn’t name the material. Such artwork should be the “treasured objects” which were confiscated at the time of the “socialist transformation”. In addition, a black great master of oil painting was creating paintings at the narrow space of the periphery of the barbed wire by the dim light and meantime protected these precious “treasured objects” art.    

We found the three shrines from Guandi Temple at the side wall of the corridor. Two deified Guandi statues were lost among them and only the woodcarving shrines of Guandi image were intact as it used to be: The background of the shrines which is set in Chinese red was encircled by strings of carvings. The Lord Guandi with red face sits serenely in the middle of the shrine. Below the shrine is the story of Guan Gong (also called Lord Guan) engraved by skillful craftsman. The glittering golden color is still so bright!

At the corner of the stairs, we found the bronze-cast incense burner from Guandi temple, on which the Chinese characters were impressively engraved such as “Chinese Association”, “Guangxu Jiachen Li (which means Setting up on an Auspicious Day in 1904)” and so on. We also found shining black benches made of red sandalwood from Guandi temple of those years.

We are expecting the day to come: The benevolent dignified Guandi Statue is clustered round with the overseas Chinese and black friends in Mozambique, and along the way people set off firecrackers in a cheerful atmosphere to return the Statue to Guandi Temple in Maputo. In the warmth of the curling-up of smoke of the burning joss sticks, the new and old overseas Chinese burn joss sticks for Guandi one by one and kowtow to pay their homage, praying quietly for their relatives and friends and silently blessing their motherland.

◆    The restoration of Guandi Temple in Mozambique has been on the horizon

When Hubei delegation visited the Embassy of China in Mozambique, Tian Guangfeng, one of the   ambassadors introduced the situation to Zhu Zhengming as follows: Many years ago Guandi Temple in the capital of Mozambican was used as the National Art School. Through the efforts of Overseas Chinese Association in Mozambique in recent years, the Mozambique Government has officially decided to “implement the policy” to return Guandi Temple to Overseas Chinese Association and restore Guandi Temple and the Chinese Association. At present, the return of a substantial is further advancing.

1 The Guandi statue which is treasured in National Art Museum in Mozambique (Photographed by Zhu Zhengming)

3 The story of Guan Gong engraved on the shrine in Guandi Temple in Mozambique (Photographed by Zhu Zhengming)

4 The former hall of Guandi Temple in Mozambique which is used as vision design room of the Art School in Mozambique (Photographed by Zhu Zhengming)

5 Mr. Ren Nanhua says, “This was once the incense burner in the hall of Guandi Temple in Mozambique and at present it is preserved in National Art Museum in Mozambique” (Photographed by Zhu Zhengming).  

6 The National Art Museum in Mozambique in which Guandi statue is treasured (Photographed by Zhu Zhengming)

7 The photographer Zhu Zhengming (third from the left) is presenting the large-scale picture album Guandi Culture Across the World to Ren Nanhua(third from the right), the vice chairman of the Overseas Chinese Federation in the capital of Mozambique (Photographed by Huo Jianping)