Kinmen (Quemoy) is a famous overseas Chinese homeland in modern China. Since the 17th Century, Western colonial power expanded to South Asia, Southeast Asia, China and Japan, and drew these areas into the network of the global economy. The kinmen Islands, situated outside Xinmen (Amoy) port, were influenced by external and internal factors that shaped its history of overseas migration. Emigrants from Kinmen brought radical changes back to their hometown, including social, economic, cultural and architectural impacts. These historical phenomena, usually decribed as “transnationalism,” are important foci of current research. This research tries to study the modernization of one overseas Chinese native hometown by probing the Shining monthly of Jushan village in Kinmen. The Shining monthly is one of the most comprehensive overseas Chinese publications and news reports in the world. However, it has received little attention from academics. The Shining monthly published its first issue in September 1928, but publication was interrupted by the Sino-Japan War during 1937-45. In April 1946, the publication resumed until the KMT retreated to Taiwan in 1949. The publication had twenty-one volumes in total and recorded many historical materials, such as social life, overseas Chinese remittance, events, cultural changes and architectural activities during 1920s-30s. It also reported political conditions and made criticisms of political issues during 1945-49. The Shining monthly conveyed progressive ideas and values to the people of Kinmen at that time. This paper will use the Shining monthly to study the social changes of the native hometown, including the economic connection between overseas areas and Kinmen, the formation and characteristics of overseas Chinese families, the interaction between folk society and colonial culture, the modification of everyday life and values, and the change of landscape and buildings. I attempt to examine the use of overseas Chinese newsletters to develop the new field of social history of modern overseas Chinese native hometowns.