Where to begin....
I am sitting here thinking where to begin the story of my fascination with Matthew Tyson Yates and his life in China. I thought I could just brain dump a bunch of random stuff on here, but that wouldn't be very scholarly of me. Of course, I'm no scholar so I can get away with that. 😊
My first trip to Shanghai was in the spring of 2014 on a business trip. We were scheduled to fly from Tokyo to Shanghai, and then take the train to Hefei. This being my first visit to China, I was both nervous and excited. [**Mental note to write about my experience going to Hefei some other time. 😉]
Growing up, I had always heard the stories about our ancestor, Matthew T. Yates, how he went from being a country boy growing up in western Wake County, North Carolina, to eventually serving as a missionary in Shanghai China. I was also told that he was buried in Shanghai, and saw some old photos of his and his wife Eliza's headstones in a cemetery
After some research, I found out that he was buried in the Eight Immortals Bridge Cemetery (Ba Xian Qiao, aka "Pahsienjao") Cemetery in the French Concession. I then learned that Pahsienjao cemetery had been converted into Huaihai Park following the cultural revolution time in China. [If you would like more information about Pahsienjao Cemetery and who was buried there, you can follow this link to the Find-A-Grave site for that defunct cemetery.]
Matthew T and Eliza M Yates' headstones in Pahsienjao Cemetery - Shanghai, China
Thanks to Shanghai enthusiast and author, avezink, we have these old photos from the timeframe of when they were buried (Matthew - 1888 / Eliza - 1894).
Pahsienjao Cemetery on Avenue Joffre, 1880s
Pahsienjao Cemetery on Avenue Joffre, 1890s
... and 50 years later the cemetery is still there.
Aerial photo of Pahsienjao Cemetery on Avenue Joffre, 1946
I reached out to some of my co-workers in Shanghai and asked if there were any graves or headstones in Huaihai Park. After great confusion on their part and mine, they answered they didn't think so.
On my return trip from Hefei, I had some free time so I got the name of the park written in Chinese by a co-worker, and took a taxi to see for my self.
Huaihai Park, Shanghai China (Photo taken by @BigTnNC)
On that rainy day, I discovered why my co-workers were confused. Huaihai Park was constructed on the site of the old cemetery, and all of the headstones had disappeared.
The park is a lovely little green sanctuary surrounded by tall building a millions of busy people.
Huaihai Park, Shanghai China (Photo taken by @BigTnNC)
On a normal week day, the park is fairly empty except for families with children, and the occasional senior citizen performing Tai Chi exercises.
Huaihai Park, Shanghai China (Photo taken by @BigTnNC)
I explored all over the park to see if there was any tell-tell signs of the former cemetery, but I didn't find anything obvious. I had seen some articles about former cemeteries in China where you could spot old headstones laid flat and used as edging and pavers, but there were none to be seen.
Destruction of the foreign cemeteries in China isn't a new thing though. Following the Second World war and the formation of the People Republic, there were many purges of things linked to foreign influences. Schools and buildings were closed and repurposed, if they could not be easily torn down and rebuilt.
Cemeteries for non-Chinese weren't held in high regard, and many times the land was in very valuable locations. Converting the cemetery to a park would be fairly easy, once you got rid of the headstones and monuments. And.. with no foreign communities, churches or missionaries present in China at that time, they could claim the land as being abandoned with no resistance.
I have tried researching through my friends and contacts in Shanghai about what might have happened to all of the headstones. No one really knows for sure. Some suggest they were all moved outside of the city and placed at another site. Others suggest they could have been broken up and repurposed as filler stone for some project. Unfortunately, records are not very good from that time, and decisions were often made without going through a formal process.
Even though I didn't find what I was looking for, I still felt a closeness to him walking through that park. It made me appreciate more the struggles he and his family went through, as one of the first Baptist missionaries to Shanghai. With no local foreign missions infrastructure in place, they had to do it all themselves. Finding a place to live, food to sustain them, learning the Shanghai dialect of Chinese, and raising funds to build their first church were all obstacles they overcame during their time in China.
I look forward to writing more about Matthew and Eliza Yates and many of these topics in future journal posting.