Conversation

Ma’s paternal family had to flee their China estates as the peasants were coming with pitchforks. Took their gold bars w them. Bought black-market steamer tickets; bro to NYC, sis to Singapore. Never saw each other again, but his son found her son in SG years later. t.co/oKzCmXYWhr
This Tweet is unavailable.
2
32
We aren’t defeated so easily. Great-gramps was a wily bastard &set up soy sauce factory and travelled the region. We have his Republican-era passport. Also acquired three other wives. His main wife who fled China with him, from whom I’m descended, is a fascinating one.
1
3
Born into a wealthy mercantile family, her father forbade her foot binding and sent her to a convent school. That marked them out as Western-influenced and partly why the pitchforks came. At her wedding to my great-gramps, her 嫁妝 (trousseau) was so valuable that…
1
3
… 保鏢 armed security guards had to be hired to escort the wedding entourage from her village to his. She also had a 妹仔 (bond maid) as part of her trousseau, who followed them to Singapore. To her credit, they eventually arranged a marriage for her and paid her bride price
1
3
Eventually one of the bondmaid’s sons married one of our womenfolk, and you can just imagine the ruckus. They weren’t happy! It just wasn’t the done thing, but afaik the marriage was fine.
1
2
Meanwhile, great-gran held the family together during WWII by taking over the factory ops. Remarkable for a ‘posh’ woman of her time to do so, but we’re made of very stern stuff. She didn’t do terribly well because her son, my gramps, was only a teen
1
4
…and business dealings were hard when men barely respect you because of your gender and constantly try to cheat and undermine you. Nevertheless, she prevailed. She was known as 阿恩Ah Yan, short for 恩人 (benefactor) within the multi-wife household.
2
4
Replying to
You defo get that credit. And yes, I will. This is the decade I get serious about this shit. Planning to record interviews with surviving elders in the family.
1
1