My Family's History

As a first generation Chinese-American, my family history is centered around southeast China. Both my parents are from Guangzhou, the largest city in the Guangdong province. They grew up in a rural neighborhood with my grandparents and great-grandparents. My grandparents on my mom's side were both teachers who taught at the local school. They grew up in Vietnam where they learned how to speak Vietnamese in addition to Cantonese and Mandarin. My grandaa on my dad's side was a teacher as well and my grandma worked in a garment/textile factory. Economically my parents came from very similar backgrounds; their mothers were from wealthier families that owned land, rented out the land to different people, and made their living as businessmen while their fathers came from a long line of lower-class farmers. Besides a great (times seven or eight) grandfather who was a famous poet, my family history didn't include famous emporers or rulers.

A picture of my mom's graduating class in high school.

 

In 1991 my mom's parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Monterey Part, CA. I found that interesting because that particular city was mentioned a few times in the Takaki readings as a place where many immigrant Chinese-Americans first settled. My parents and I came over to America in 1998, when I was four years old, where we settled in the same area before moving to Seattle. I spent the next 12 years growing up in Tukwila before attending Whitworth.