The second Sunday of May every year is Mother’s Day, a holiday for expressing gratitude to mothers. The only town in China named 'Mama' is hidden in Dazhou City’s Dazhu County.
Mama Town was named in honor of an ancient woman renowned for her diligence, kindness, generosity, self-respect, and gentle elegance.
According to the “Dazhu County Annals” and “Mama Township Annals,” in the early Qing Dynasty, an elderly woman of unknown surname built a thatched shed at the bend of the main street in present-day Mama Town (to the right of Jishen Temple), where she twisted hemp into thread and sold it to passing travelers and merchants. She later constructed a few more wooden houses and opened an inn specifically to offer food and lodging to travelers. The old woman was known for her kindness, warmth, and generosity, especially her empathy for the poor; she often helped others in times of need and gained a great reputation among the villagers, who respectfully called her 'Good Mama.'
Later, people built houses around the inn she established and gradually formed a street, which became known as 'Mama Market.' The whole market was centered around six temples and one ancestral hall, interspersed with private shops, and overall laid out in the shape of the Chinese character '丁.' To commemorate this old woman, in the 11th year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1861), the magistrate of Dazhu, at the request of the local people, renamed Changle Township (actually part of Changle Township) as Mama Township. In the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), Mama Township had 43 shops.
In 1946, a teacher named Huang Kai from Mama Township tried to curry favor with local dignitaries Zhou Tianhui and Yang Zhugan by renaming Mama Township 'Huian Township,' taking the last character from each of their names.
In the second half of 1950, Xie Xiangfu, representing all the villagers, requested to restore the original name, so Huian Township was changed back to Mama Township. In October 1958, it was renamed Mama Commune. In September 1966, it became Gongnong Commune; in March 1973, the name reverted to Mama Commune. In March 1983, it was renamed Mama Township once again. In June 2001, after meeting the requirements for town status in terms of economic indexes and population, it was officially established as Mama Town, a name that continues to this day.
Today, when you walk into Mama Town, the streets are clean and tidy and it has been successfully designated as a Sanitary Township of Sichuan Province. In Mama Town, elements related to 'mother' can be seen everywhere; both of the town’s squares are also named after “Mother” or “Mama.”
In Mama Square in the town, there is a sculpture of a young mother holding a baby, with the 16 characters—'diligent and kind, broad-minded and tolerant, devoted and self-respecting, gentle and elegant'—engraved at its base, symbolizing the 'Mama Spirit.' Not far from Mama Square, there is also a 'Mother Impression Square,' featuring a sculpture of an elderly mother: she smiles, sits on a bench, and pours water from a kettle into a bowl, as if welcoming guests from afar.