Hainan Hometown Association Toronto Mid-Autumn Thanksgiving Gathering: Basking in the Canadian Moonlight, Recalling Our Hometown in Qiongzhou

October 12, 2025 yanfei3001

(TORONTO, Huawen Net) During the Mid-Autumn Festival season of 2025, the Ontario Fujianese Association in Canada will host a grand Mid-Autumn Festival gathering in Toronto. On this day, over a hundred distinguished guests from all walks of life and fellow provincials from Qiong will gather in splendor at the New Age Club in Scarborough, north of Toronto.

Mr. Lin Ye, President of the Hainan Association of Ontario, took the stage to give a speech. “Tonight, we gather in Canada, thinking of our homeland in Qiongzhou. Using taste as our boat and local dialect as our oars, we navigate the warm currents of the South China Sea on this Canadian autumn night,” he said. “The Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes reunion, longing, and gratitude. For us Hainanese living abroad, it is an even more important moment to unite our hometown feelings and strengthen our bonds. It is because of everyone's support and participation that our association can grow stronger and stronger.” Lin Ye also conveyed greetings and blessings to former president Luo Xuqiang, sending sincere wishes for his recent recovery. Lin Ye pointed out that the Hainan Association of Ontario is unique in all of Canada. We have our own association hall, an inheritance left by our predecessors. Lin Ye also emphasized the cultivation of new talent, encouraging the younger generation to take over and pass on the torch, ensuring the Hainan Association continues for generations in Canada.

Lin Ye, representing the Ontario Hainan Association, extends the sincerest holiday greetings to everyone.

The Secretary-General of the Ontario Hainan Association, Liu Sixiu, hosted the Mid-Autumn Festival gathering. The on-site interactions were sincere and heartfelt, and the entire event was meticulously planned.

Writer Yan Fei delivered a congratulatory speech on behalf of the Canadian Chinese Writers Association and spontaneously recited the chapter “Deer Cry” from the Book of Songs, Xiaoya. Yan Fei said, "Tonight, we bask in the same Canadian moonlight, but our hearts are filled with the mists of Wuzhishan, the clear waves of Wanquan River, and the roar of the Qiongzhou Strait. Although Su Dongpo said, 'Where the heart is at ease, there is my home,' for us overseas children, Hainan is our eternal hometown. 'Swordsman' Yan also said that Hainan is the place where dreams begin, where he spent the most beautiful times of his life, leaving behind much glory and romance, honor and dreams, as well as his 'Hainan Dreamless,' 'Hainan Startled from Dream,' and 'Hainan Seeking Dream' – Yan Fei's Hainan Dream trilogy."

Writer Yan Fei delivered a congratulatory speech on behalf of the Chinese-Canadian Writers Association and improvised a recitation of the "Book of Songs" from the "Minor Odes of the Kingdom" section, titled "Deer Call."

Inside the venue, candlelight flickered red in glazed lamps, and delicacies were arranged on blue and white porcelain plates. Coconut sticky rice cakes, Wenchang chicken dishes, Dongshan lamb belly, and Jiashi duck gizzards... each dish carrying the flavors of the island, was not only a taste of homesickness but also a silent letter from home.

As the sound of string and bamboo instruments began, dynamic songs and dances filled the air, bringing everyone together in joyful reunion. New and veteran immigrants tapped out the rhythm of cultural fusion on the dance floor. The lucky draw segment was wonderfully creative, filled with laughter and cheers, as boxes of mooncakes were handed out one after another to the lucky winners. The entire hall beamed with smiles.

As the bright moon ascends to its zenith, the delicacies of myriad flavors have transformed into joyous conversation filling the hall. Song and dance flutter, harmonizing with the rustling maple leaves outside the window, reminiscent of the sound of rain on banana leaves in one's homeland. This scene and sentiment perfectly echo the parting words of Chairman Lin Ye: “We have brought the waves of the South China Sea, adorning this place into a galaxy; tonight we gather the crimson of Canadian maples to embellish the spring of Qiongya in the future.”

Group photo of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Hainan Association. Front row, from left to right: Li Xiaoyang, Lin Youxiang, Tian Chen, Lin Ye, Liu Sixiu, Huang Hui, Lai Duanmin. Back row, from left to right: Luo Panzhong, Chen Junbo, Chen Zhongliang, Zeng Jifen, Zeng Guangjian, Fu Zhigang.

Hainan Compatriots' Mid-Autumn Thanksgiving Gathering

After the Mid-Autumn Festival is the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend holiday.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, Mr. Lin Ye, a renowned overseas Chinese leader and President of the Ontario Hainan Association of Canada, met with Mr. Yan Fei, Chairman of the Chinese Writers Association of Canada, at the Dragon City Banquet Hall in Toronto. Over tea, they reminisced about their homeland in Qiongzhou (Hainan). The hosts and guests enjoyed themselves immensely, and the conversation flowed harmoniously.

Yan Fei and Lin Ye took a photo together at Longxiang Hotel.

Hainan natives enjoy the holiday joy. The Mid-Autumn Festival gathering, a timeless event, was not only a brocade woven with food and song to express homesickness, but also new jade branches of our cultural roots sprouting in foreign soil. When the melody of "Wan Quan River Water" finally merged with the night wind of "Red River Valley," all the wanderers understood: as long as the bright moon still hangs high, our homeland will always be at the apex of the sky we look up to.