It's always great to hear about my family's history.. and today they told me a little more of what they had went through. And I guess Joy Luck Club inspired me (I don't know if that's the right word here, more like.. forced me to do so or else I would fail at being Chinese) to jot down the things I remember. And they said this all in Chinese, so I sincerely hope my translations are accurate.
So my uncle is here visiting us from Atlanta, Georgia, one of my mom's three brothers (her other two are back in China with my grandmother). My great-grandparents on my mom's side is from Shandong province, a barren land lacking of any natural resources. This was kind of a shock to me, I had always thought they were from Dongbei (Northeastern China), near the Mongolian border. Turns out, they had migrated to Dongbei around 1922 because, as my dad says, the Northeastern Chinese are incredibly smart but annoyingly lazy.
During the migration, they would hold a stick, usually made of yumu on their backs and dangle a baby in one basket on one end of the stick and clothes in the other basket on the other end. Yumu was a very durable wood, it could carry many many kilograms; in the South, zhuzi (bamboo) was more commonly used. To get to the Dongbei area, migrators would have to travel though an opening in the Great Wall and walk many miles. A new Chinese character arose from this movement: chuan. Broken down into radicals, the outside part of the word means gate or door, and the inside part means horse; so literally, a horse going through a gate.
Back in Shandong province, the people would have to work extremely hard to simply counteract the natual disasters common to the area. Dongbei, on the other hand, was a bountiful land: if you wanted to fish, there were lakes teeming with fish nearby; if you wanted meat, deer were right outside prancing around; if you wanted any crops, just throw some seeds in the black dirt and anything and everything would grow. This is where my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents are from, the Shandong province. So now I know I have Shandong blood, thanks for finally telling me guys.
Even FARTHER back though, my grandmother on my mom's side is of Manzu descent (you probably know it as Manchurian). The Manzu were known as extremely clever and wise rulers of China, ruling Northeastern China and little bits of Russia during the Ming and Qing dynasties until 1911. The Manzu aren't really Chinese, even though they controlled most of China for a long period of time. Nowadays, there are so many Manzu in China that they are a recognized minority and completely integrated into society.
My mom is proudly emphasizes that the Manzu never practiced footbinding, unlike my great-grandmother on my dad's side, whose feet were the length of 3-4 inches and grossly disfigured. My grandmother (on my dad's side) said I had seen my great-grandmother's foot and was completely scared yet totally fascinated by it. She said I was only around 2 years old and my foot was about the same size as this full-grown woman's foot that was bound her entire life. I wish my great-grandmother was still alive so I could ask her what it was really like.
Wars were pretty common during the time of my grandparents and great-grandparents, around the 1900s. My grandmother (on my dad's side) lived in Shaanxi province (The Southern Chinese, not really the Northern Chinese, are known for playing mahjong all the time and are the best at making noodles. Southern Chinese cities are also known for having a wall built around it: "You see a city.. BAM, there's a wall." --says my dad). The area of Shaanxi was completely inaccessible to Japanese troops during the Japanese invasion because of steep mountain passes, so the Japanese resorted to nonstop aerial bombings of the city. My grandmother said she would go to school in the morning and see the remains of the previous night's bombings; most memorably, she remembered seeing a kid's leg on a wire up high and another's kid's head resting on a wall. Can you imagine seeing that on your way to school? I see the occassional dead squirrel and even that traumatizes me... once I saw a dead deer and couldn't get the image out of my head for days.
My great-grandfather (on my mom's side) fought in the Korean War as part of the Red Army, who allied with the Koreans against the Americans. In a nutshell, North Korea invaded South Korea, so the US butted in on the side of the South Koreans, then the Chinese, with the command of Chairman Mao, butted in on the side of the North Koreans (well there were other countries involved, but too many to list here). The war was fought until fighting ended at the sanbaxian (38th parallel). My great-grandfather joined the Red Army in 1947 and fought in the war until 1951. His kneecap was completely shattered so from thenafter, he could never bend his leg again and walked with a straight leg.
After all the talk about the Korean war, my dad and my grandpa got into a mini-argument about US intervention. My dad thought it was necessary during the time while my grandpa said the US should butt out of people's beeswax. I'm not sure I can really take a clear stand on that one. I can name countless times in history when intervention was completely unnecessary and only made things much worse, but I can also name countless other times when the Americans actually helped the country... hm, that a toughie.
It's amazing how some people LIVE through the history that you can only read about and imagine. I guess we are too, we just need some time to truly realize what impact it will eventually have.