Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
A 77-year-old man in southeastern China has spent nearly six decades turning homesickness, hardship and family duty into letters sent across the sea.
Jiang Mingdian is from Quanzhou in Fujian province. He is one of China’s last active professional letter writers.
Over 59 years, he has reportedly written more than 100,000 letters for local families to relatives overseas.
He entered the trade at the age of 18 with his parents’ encouragement.
His father was among China’s earliest professional letter writers. His mother, a primary school teacher, helped nurture his early education.
The profession grew out of Fujian’s long history of emigration. From the 1840s, waves of young people left the province in search of work.
They sent home letters and money, but many of their relatives could not read or write, so they could not reply. Professional letter writers emerged to bridge that divide.
