A ceremony was held Friday in Nan'an city of east China's Fujian Province to introduce a compilation of records tracing the genealogical history of Zheng Chenggong, a national hero who drove Dutch colonists out of Taiwan in the 17th century.
The 50-volume genealogical history, upon its completion in 2010,will cover a 1,000-year period and will constitute the most accurate and complete record of Zheng's family tree.
In Nan'an, Zheng's birthplace, an inaugural ceremony was also held to celebrate the completion of the ancestral hall of the Zheng clan.
More than 1,000 people attended the ceremonies.
Zheng was born in Nan'an in 1624. In 1662, he commanded an armada which traversed the Taiwan Straits from Jinmen Island and succeeded in taking the Chinese territory of Taiwan from Dutch colonialists who had occupied Taiwan for 38 years.
As many of Zheng's offspring live in Taiwan and have contributed to the island's development, the compilation of the genealogical history may help promote the cause of reunification, said Zheng Huasha, one of Zheng's descendants.
(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2002)
