I first visited Guangdong, where my ancestors came from, early this month to cover the second conference of the World Guangdong Community Federation.
My brief was to make contacts and find a place to live as I begin a two-year assignment in Guangzhou this month.
As such, I did not see myself as a visiting overseas Chinese like the other 3,000 participants at the conference. There were many differences between us, but one in particular stood out during those few days - most participants were in their 60s and 70s. While I like the company of older people, I would not have gone all the way to China to attend a clan association meeting if not for my job.
I have stepped into a clan association building - the Kwang Shiew Association back home in Malaysia - maybe two or three times and each time to attend a funeral.
My grandmother has talked about paying her membership dues and buying a burial plot. Friends tell me their mothers go to the Hainan Association to help cook for a wedding or some rite of passage while one of my uncles plays mahjong at the Foochow Association. Yet I've heard that association members are contentious, often fighting over leadership positions.
With this background, it was only natural that I started to question the relevance of clan associations to overseas ethnic Chinese. I wondered at China's efforts to maintain its links with its diaspora once this generation of septuagenarians passes on.