Sure enough, the initial complaint on the phone soon turned into irrepressible excitement upon seeing the images of the land his family longed for.

Since the Kuliang story was retold in 2012, a quiet yet profound transformation has been underway on the mountain.

"The cultural excavation process has been very arduous," admits Jiang Jingting, from the area's management committee.

"We've been working on it for over a decade, and we're still at it," he says, adding that the goal is to search for descendants scattered across the globe and salvage local memories.

The physical changes are evident. With about 3 billion yuan ($432.2 million) in government investment and leveraging nearly 20 billion yuan in private capital, over 20 of Kuliang's 120-year-plus-old villas have been restored to their original state and given new life.

The post office still operates and serves as a cultural space, while the Kuliang Club is now an experiential museum that receives over a million visitors annually.

Liang Weimin, 83, has often been invited to share his childhood memories with international guests.

His recollections are not grand historical narratives, but specific, tactile personal accounts, filled with his gratitude for missionary Edward H. Smith, who offered him food and education. He is also filled with nostalgia for the distinctive thwack of a wooden ball from the small, flattened courtyards in front of the foreign villas, where adults played games that the local children watched with fascination.