A sweet potato story: the Kamote that crossed the sea

There are moments in history when the most powerful symbols of friendship are not found in palaces, treaties, or monuments. Sometimes, they are found in the soil. During my visit to Jinjiang, a county-level city in Quanzhou, China’s southeastern Fujian province, I came across a story that made me look at one of the most ordinary foods in the Philippines in an entirely different way. It was the story of the sweet potato — Kamote in the Philippines, 甘薯 — gānshǔ or 红薯 — hóngshǔ in Chinese, and how a humble crop associated with Filipino farms and kitchens became part of a much larger story of maritime trade, human migration, famine relief and the centuries-old interaction between the Philippines and China. Standing inside the Jinjiang Museum, I was struck by how easily something as simple as a root crop could become a bridge between peoples separated by the South China Sea. The display before me showed two men in traditional clothing working in a field. The accompanying English caption was direct: “Scene of Wu Keding teaching farmers to plant sweet potato in Lingshui, Jinjiang in the Ming Dynasty.” Beside the scene was a reproduction of a historical record concerning Wu Keding (吴可鼎), a Jinjiang native who lived from 1551 to 1599, and his role in importing and promoting sweet potatoes from Luzon. For me, that image told a much bigger story. It suggested that what crossed the sea was not simply a crop. Knowledge crossed with it. And so did people, technology, farming practices, commercial relationships and human connections.