Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Family history

My granduncle, a 75 year-old man, sat next to me in the car as we traveled to the  outskirts of Beijing for a a family outing. On the way there, he showed me an old scar.

"Look at this," he said, pulling back the hair over his left temple. Hiding in the strands was a white line etched on his skin. "I got this during the war."

He was about three year old then when the Japanese had invaded China in 1937. During a bombing raid, my granduncle hid in a building, with my grandfather holding him. Broken glass shards fell from the ceiling, cutting my granduncle's head.

"We then ran away, but I was bleeding all over the place," he said. "I didn't even know about this until your grandfather told me about it later."

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My grandfather was the eldest son in his family. He had five other siblings, with my granduncle included. When the Japanese had invaded China he was only 15 years old.

As the war broke out, my grandfather and siblings left his hometown of Taiyuan, traveling to the west and crossing the Yellow River, where they thought it would be safe. But in fleeing, they were separated from their father who had stayed behind to work with the Chinese government.

Eventually word reached that their father was ill. They then traveled for seven days to meet him in a neighboring county. They had hoped to be reunited as family. But upon arriving, my grandfather had found that his father was already buried dead. He was about 16 when this happened.

"Your grandfather suffered many hardships," my granduncle said. "He was so young and had to be responsible for the family and take care of all five of his siblings."

After the war, my grandfather had gone to work for the Chinese Nationalist Party. This put him at odds with China's Communist Party as both groups went to war with each other in an effort to take over the country.

With the Nationalist forces losing its hold on the mainland, a retreat was made into Taiwan by 1949. My grandfather went with, hoping his family would meet him on the island. But instead, my grandfather found himself alone.

"Originally, we were supposed to go to Taiwan too," my granduncle recalled. "The rest of the family had traveled to Shanghai. But when we got there, no plane tickets were being sold. We couldn't even buy a boat ticket."

Contact between my grandfather and his family eventually ceased as the world entered into the Cold War. A new Communist China would arise while Taiwan remained independent, the island protected by a fleet of U.S. Navy ships.

As a consequence, the family was separated once again. From 1951 to 1982, my granduncle heard nothing from him. "We didn't even know if your grandfather was alive," he said.

Not until China began reopening itself to the world, did my grandfather have a chance to talk and meet with his family on the mainland again.

He had always wanted to live out the remainder of his life on the mainland, my granduncle said. My grandfather had even already bought a home in the Chinese city of Suzhou.

Still, not even in the twilight of his age could my grandfather get a fair shake out of life. An accident in 2004 had left my grandfather confined into a wheelchair. In the following years, he would suffer from bouts of pneumonia.

My grandfather is now 87 years old and still lives in Taiwan. He will likely have to remain there for the rest of his life.

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After telling me all this, my granduncle then turned to the subject of my life. He did so rather passionately.

"It's time for the Kan family to rise up again," he started. "You are the oldest Kan among your cousins. You have to take responsibility now."

I nodded my head, pretending I understood. In reality, I had no idea what he was talking about. My granduncle could probably tell, seeing the blank expression on my face. So he explained.

My grandfather had lived a difficult life, and so did his father before him, dying at the age of 45 from sickness while trying to escape the Japanese invasion. Past generations of the Kan family have experienced many struggles. But now was the time to essentially restore the family prestige.

He then saw fit to make a parallel: as China the nation rises to prosperity, the Kan family must as well too.

Oh Lord, I had thought to myself. Seriously?

I had traveled to China with no such ambitious goal in mind; I had just wanted to learn Chinese, be a journalist and have some new experiences. But now my granduncle had put things in a different perspective. Apparently, I have to lead the Kan family to glory.

In that moment, I could feel the weight of past generations of Kan family history fall on me. Old historical wounds shown right up at me.

My stomach felt sick.

Maybe we should change the subject, I thought to myself.

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My grandfather is the tall teenager pictured above. My granduncle is the little guy standing in the bottom right.