A breakdown of the heritage.

• The entirety of my immediate family, mom and dad's side both, including all cousins, lives within fifteen minutes walking distance from each other in the best city in the world, Chengdu. My parents are the only exception.
• My mother and father have known each other since they were born. Their respective mothers have known each other since they were born. My grandmas are besties. They live across the street from each other. I can't believe how convenient it is that their children are married!
• My maternal grandmother was a model during the civil war. Her village sided with the Kuomintang. Chiang Kai-Shek once visited her high school. The school selected her to present a flower to Chiang as part of a greeting ceremony. After the communists won, they blacklisted her. The definitive moment of her life occurred when she was seventeen - she was never able to have a career, and her family deserted her. Nothing, however, compares to the guilt she personally copes with. She is a diehard communist and applies for party membership annually. She is rejected every year. In the 90s, the Taiwanese government offered her asylum. She refused, citing loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
• My paternal grandfather grew up in the first communist settlement. He was part of the Red Guard. A national program interviewed him in his house. He showed them some historic communist dance. The entire Dong family gathered to watch the program.
• My paternal grandparents are adorable. They call me "gua mi", literally "kid crazy about watermelons", because I really am. They always stock up on watermelon before I visit.
• My dad's high school made him defend the school with a Type 56 assault rifle instead of going to class. Suffice it to say he didn't go to college. He now lives in the Beijing Shangri-La.
• While my grandparents are ardent communists, I am also related to Kang Zhengguo, basically the OG of trolling in Mao's China. He ordered "Doctor Zhivago", a forbidden book, at his local library, then was sent to labour camp for doing so. He got kicked out the country, Yale saw his writings and poetry while he was touring Boston, and now he's a senior lecturer there on Chinese literature. He's a scholar, poet, and once took me to a ballin' Chinese restaurant in rural Connecticut.
• My uncle is a wonderful uncle and a terrible father.
• My other uncle is a terrible uncle and a terrible father. I lived with him while visiting once and he would get drunk every night, come home at 3 AM, wet from falling into the residential complex's turtle pond (not even kidding), and play the Chinese national anthem on piano while singing along. He has an amazing voice though, he used to sing professionally.
• He also gambles habitually. He let me run away from home when I was three because instead of supervising me he went out to play poker at 2 AM with friends.
• Still, such a cool guy.
• My dad never forgets to make sure I drink a glass of milk before bed, but can't remember my age.
• My dad drinks rum like water. This might account for the above fact.
• One of my cousins, on my dad's side, is 26 years old and crazy pretty. I remember we all thought she was fat and ugly when I was younger, but holy crap, she's the pride of the Dongs now.
• My aunty named her male dog Barbie because I used to be obsessed with Barbie dolls, but Chinese people can't pronounce r's, so it just sounds like Bobby.
• My mother is a fascist. I used to resent her for this, as she would scream death threats at the TV screen when protest footage aired. She always votes for the incumbent because she thinks voting for anybody else is traitorous. Then my dad told me she was part of the Chinese student protests in 1989, culminating in the Tiananmen square massacre, but that no one, not even him, was allowed to talk about that time in her life. I figured that things were more complicated than what they seemed. I'm a lot more forgiving to my mother now, and to all other people (I hope!), no matter how despicable their words and beliefs might appear.