The National Museum of China has collected 32,000 family letters from domestic and overseas Chinese in eight months after launching a campaign to save written documents reflecting historical folk custom.

The family letters serve as a guide to family life during the dynasties of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) with contents covering parenthood, filial piety, brotherhood, love as well as army service and overseas life.

Lu Neng from southwest China's Sichuan Province donated the only family letter left over by his uncle Lu Gengfu who died at the age of 26 for the revolutionary cause as one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China in its early years.

The letter offers an important historical reference to the North Expedition, a civil war from 1926 to 1927.

The museum will continue to solicit family letters from domestic and overseas Chinese and hold the first forum on Chinese family letters in 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2006)