Beijing ? All her life, Cordelia Jiang has heard tales about her father’s younger years in Hunan province about Chinese hot peppers that ignited on the tongue, burned all the way down and made their American counterparts seem downright wimpy.

But to Cordelia, 11, an American of Chinese ancestry from Cupertino, Calif., the stories about China that sprung from her parents’ lips were secondhand memories imported from a distant land.

Canadian Chinese Diana Wang, a Canadian of Chinese ancestry, adjusts her cap outside the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing. Diana was part of a group of young overseas Chinese invited to visit China as the government tries to entice children of emigrants to return.

So when she and a dozen other Chinese children from eight foreign nations found themselves in Beijing’s imperial Forbidden City this weekend, it was not merely a summer tour. It was a chance to make some of the far-off tales real.

As the government tries to entice overseas Chinese, or “huaqiao” (pronounced “hwa-chiao”), back to the motherland, it is not stopping with adults. In sundry visits and summertime mini-camps, the government is targeting children of the diaspora, too, using their summer vacations to introduce them to the country of their heritage.

“It’s good knowing your own history,” said Lucy Ji, 15, of Erie, Pa. “I think you should know a little of what’s going about your past so you won’t be clueless about it.”

Work and play

This particular group, brought over by an organization called the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, consisted of students who answered ads in Chinese-language newspapers in their home countries and won an essay contest using Chinese characters, of course.

They came from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, Japan and the United States for a week of immersion in the culture. Before their sojourn ends Tuesday, they will have seen the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, learned about native acrobatics and dance, and practiced Chinese classical essays.

“They’re on vacation and studying at the same time. That’s the best combination,” said Guo Minyan, the federation’s director and the main barrier between many of the kids and a visit to McDonald’s.

Most strikingly, these children from all over are finding more common ground than any expected, and a common language to discuss it.

“They know in their hearts they’re Chinese. It’s just a matter of bringing it out in them,” said Luo Zuchou, a Cambodian schoolteacher who accompanied four students on the trip, including her daughter.

Economic factor

The program, in its third year, is one of many coinciding with China’s efforts to recruit overseas Chinese recent emigrants as well as those two or three generations removed from the mainland to help build the country’s economic future.

It is something identified as a high priority by the government, which puts the number of overseas Chinese in the world at 30 million including 2 million in the United States, according to the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Many have found education, success and prosperity in their new countries, and Beijing recognizes the crucial roles their experience and financial clout can play as World Trade Organization membership turns China into a truly international country.

“It’s good for the Chinese psyche to believe that the overseas Chinese support the modernization process,” said Scott Wilson, director of the Asian studies program at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

“The Chinese have long wanted to believe they are a culturally rooted people rather than just a territorially defined group,” Wilson said. “Re-establishing links with overseas Chinese helps build their sense of nationalism.”

The government has passed laws protecting the rights and investments of overseas Chinese who return and often uses state media to appeal to their Chinese identity.

“Overseas professionals encouraged to serve the motherland,” said one recent headline in the People’s Daily newspaper.

Taste of heritage

For the children and teenagers visiting this past week, identity a common conundrum with many overseas Chinese is certainly a topic of conversation: Do they belong to the countries where their homes and schools are, or do they belong to China?

“I always think of it like competition. I can play on both teams Australian and Chinese,” said Kane Wu, 15, of Sydney, Australia, who left China as a young girl and became an Australian citizen. “I’d stay in China. China’s getting more advanced. There’s a good future here.”

Each of these visitors says the same thing: They’ll go home with memories of China that come from their eyes, not their parents.

Cordelia Jiang, whose parents left the hot-pepper haven of Hunan province 20 years ago, finally has tasted her very own Chinese chilies something she plans to share fully with her father.

“He keeps calling and saying, ‘Are they hot? Are they hot?’ I’m gonna say, ‘OK, you’re right. Man, they were hot,”‘ she said.

“And you know what? Now I have my own stories from China to tell him.”