After over 150 years of migration from China to Peru, the current Chinese diaspora in the Andean country is well-established. Today, the search for deeper connections intersects with the real modern contribution local Chinese have made to Peru.
The Peruvian China Association (APCH), founded in 1999, has set itself to preserve the Chinese culture and civilization in the country. With 10 percent of the Peruvian population able to trace their ancestry back to China, the Chinese are an indelible part of the country's ethnic mix.
For Juan Chau Elias, the treasurer of APCH, it is vital to maintain these links to the motherland and pass them onto later generations.
"For Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival each year, we have massive parties with thousands of people. We show the younger generation that these are important, that they are family traditions we can celebrate together," Chau Elias told Xinhua in an interview.
"Few now know how the Chinese community worked very hard to support China during World War II. We must bring these contributions to light," he said.
A special youth committee within the APCH was established to encourage young people to get involved more and to learn the traditions and values of those who came before.
"In Peru, it used to be that you needed connections or money to get ahead. But I started from the ground up. Through hard work, I became president of a bank. I also served for a year as Peru's Secretary of Public Management," said Chau Elias, using his own example to show how Chinese here could contribute to the country.
However, based on their historical friendship, the two nations have also sought to let each other learn about their respective ancestral cultures, from China's numerous dynasties to Peru's Chavin civilization.
Two of these civilizations, China's state of Shu (around 1,045 and 316 B.C.) and the Chavin in Peru (around 1,500 and 300 B.C.), have attracted archaeologists for years as they both represent dominant Bronze Age societies, which pioneered the use of bronze and created longstanding artistic legacies.
The similarities between the two civilizations were brought to the attention of the world when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Peru in May 2015.
Attending an event honoring Latin American and Chinese civilizations in Lima, including a photo exhibition on the "origins of Chinese culture", Li donated a gold mask replica from the ruins of Sanxingdui, a cultural relic area of the ancient Shu state in present-day Sichuan Province, to Peru's National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History.
The Sanxingdui mask was particularly well-received as both cultures have left behind numerous masks. The replica gold mask was presented as a gift to promote cultural exchanges but will have special meaning to Peru, which treasures the stunning ceramic masks that have become emblematic of the Chavin historical legacy.
The similarities between Chavin and China continued to exist during China's legendary Shang Dynasty.
The decorative motifs on Chavin masks, ceramics and fabrics are so strikingly similar to those on Shang-era bronzewear that some have even claimed that early cultural exchanges and trade must have happened back around 1,000 B.C. when both cultures overlapped.
However, Tang Jigen, an archaeologist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that no such evidence exists.
"We have no evidence, although there are Chinese scholars who have proposed this theory from legends about the displacement of a group belonging to the Shang Dynasty. We must make deeper comparative studies," Tang told Peruvian daily El Comercio.
Yet, the keen interest for historical connections is in large part due to the very real links that exist between China and Peru.
The APCH maintains a keen interest in Lima's Chinatown, located on Capon Street. Founded in the middle of the 19th century by Chinese immigrants, the street became a symbol of the community that sprung up in Peru.
Located where major import-export companies and services for Chinese residents concentrate, Chinatown was almost destroyed in the War of the Pacific with Chile. The area remained in a miserable condition until the 1970s when the Chinese community rejuvenated it.
"Today, the APCH is responsible for the maintenance, cleanliness and legacy of Capon Street," explained Chau.
"It is our way of giving back and honoring those who founded our community," he concluded.
