As an interesting little tidbit of family history, I was in the car with my mother the other day while she was visiting, and we had an interesting conversation that gave me a little more insight into my family's history. My mother has told me in the past and repeated it during this conversation that at some point during their engagement, my grandmother realized that she and my grandfather were not really right for each other and said that they should not get married, but my grandfather, crying, pleaded with her and they ended up as a couple. Time would show that my grandmother was probably right, particularly given the animosity and separation between them at the end of their lives.
In any case, the conversation my mother and I had revolved around my grandmother and grandfather. I had known that my grandfather's family had been a part of the vast number of scholars at the imperial court, but I did not know some of my grandfather's more immediate history. Apparently, he was a child of a wealthy merchant. His mother, being unhappy with his father's prolonged absences on business, defied convention and went home to her own family, leaving my grandfather in the care of his father's family. My great grandmother's family was in itself wealthy enough to shield her from the shame and social ostracization that normally came with leaving her husband and returning to her maiden family.
Well, that did not change the fact that his father was often away on business, and it seems that he was passed around among family members to be raised up. My great-grandfather apparently thought that being rich and giving my grandfather plenty of money made up for good parenting, which explains why my grandfather always carried a playboy's air around with him.
As for my grandmother, apparently she was a middle child of a family that had at seven daughters and a number of sons. Her family was also quite well to do. My grandfather, being the rich romantic swept my grandmother off her feet with his romantic chivalry. At a time when air travel was still in its infancy, my grandfather had the luxury of taking my grandmother down to Hong Kong from mainland China for a weekend getaway photo safari. Aside from the air travel, the fact that they were going for pleasure and that they were going to take photos, another bourgeoisie pastime in those days, is a good indication of how well of they were.
It amazes me that they lost all of that. When my mother was born they fled the Japanese invasion, and one would have thought that the experience would have taught them to plan better. Nonetheless, when the communists swept across the nation, my grandfather decided that it was a good time to take a vacation in Hong Kong, as a last hurrah as it were. What stuns me is that knowing that the communists were coming, and being an educated man who was on the side of the Kuomintang, one would have figured that he would have the presence of mind to move his money somewhere safe, and that instead of a vacation, he would be moving his family altogether. I guess hindsight is 20/20 but the truth is that my grandfather was never very good at planning either.
Well, they made it to Hong Kong, with a retinue of servants, and the Communists took over their property in China, and they lost most of their assets and money, and they were trapped in Hong Kong. Amazingly, my grandparents somehow thought that the tide would reverse shortly, and moved the family into a hotel where ended up living there for many years before finally deciding that they should move to an actual apartment. Apparently, that is how my mother's family ended up in Hong Kong!
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