In what is perhaps the most epic family photo taken, 500 Chinese men, women and children – all descended from the same man – have gathered together to pose for a camera.
The Ren family assembled in an eastern Chinese village to take the photo, which saw the 25th to 31st generations of the family line stand together. It took half an hour for the 500 Rens to get into position, with Ren Tuanjie, who had organised the gathering, shouting orders through a megaphone to keep things in order.
It’s a family affair
The Rens were able to trace back their ancestry and build the formidable family tree by examining 13 genealogy scrolls. More than 1,000 Rens in the village of Shishecun, Zhejiang are still alive, and Ren Tuanjie says he has reached out to the 300 or so who have left the town in order to document the as well.
Honouring their ancestors
“It took us two-and-a-half years to complete the new family tree,” said Ren Tuanjie, who used the Chinese Spring Festival, the largest migration of human beings on Earth, as an opportunity to get the Ren family together. Ren, incidentally, translates as ‘unity’ in Mandarin.
“During Spring Festival, we like to bring all the family member together so as to let our ancestors know where they are. China is moving towards modernity, but Chinese people’s roots in their native land never disappear,” he added.
“Wherever they go, descendants from one family have always got something to bring them together.”
