Savannah's Chinese ballast stone

Anybody who visits Savannah will visit River Street. Anybody who goes to River Street will walk on the cobble stones. Anybody who knows the history of Savannah will know the story behind these cobble stones: In the 18th and 19th centuries, the golden age of Savannah's cotton export, empty European cargo ships came to Savannah carrying a load of cobble stones for ballast. When they arrived, they unloaded their ballast stones and loaded up with Savannah's cotton. These stones made good pavers and building materials along Savannah's River Street. They have a wide variety of origins: mostly England and Europe, some from Africa and the Caribbean. A friend of mine spotted one cobble stone with Chinese inscriptions.

My attempt to unveil the history of this piece of stone leads to some research on the history of China and Savannah. The format of the words on the stone indicates that it is most likely a broken piece of a tombstone. The inscriptions - by sheer chance, told the exact year when it was carved: 1798. The first two words on the right denote the name of Emperor Jiaqing in Qing, China's last dynasty. His reign lasted 25 years, from 1796 to 1820. The next two words mean "third year". This puts the stone to 1798 in China. The three bigger words on the left are the name of a person. The first two words from the top, Cheung and Lin, are both very common family names. But the second word, Lin, is also widely used in given names. In the Chinese culture, when a woman is married, she adds her husband's family name before her own. So in this case, the name on the stone could be a man's; he would be Mr. Cheung. Or it could be a woman's name; she would be Mrs. Cheung and her maiden name would have been Ms. Lin.

If I was to see this stone a year ago, before my time in China, I would be jumping up and down and think we should FedEx this historic artifact back to China or a museum. But 11 months in China made me realize a sad part of modern Chinese history. Stones like these, usually tombstones or plaques or monuments at temples, were deliberately destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and used as road pavers or foundations everywhere in China. It is disheartening to see them but they are just everywhere and no one cares in China. Even if they do care, the Chinese people do not dare to say or do anything. However, since the Cultural Revolution occurred in 1965-1968, this particular piece of broken tombstone on River Street would not have been a result of it.

It is a mystery how this Chinese stone made its way to Savannah. Instead of solving this mystery, I am cooking up a story full of colorful Chinese traditions, the volatile history of China's last dynasty, Savannah's romantic plantation era stories, and the power struggle before, during, and after the Civil War, all in the backdrop of River Street's glorious days of political and economic hot spot in the Southeast. A novel may be born of this cobble stone.

For more images of Savannah's Historic Downtown, please visit my Savannah album.