Meet the 2019 Roots Cohort
In search of their ancestral villages, 11 people of the Chinese diaspora hailing from the Bay Area and Boston will soon travel to the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong 廣東省, China. We will visit 5 different areas, including Kaiping 開平, Taishan 台山, Xinhui 新會, and Guangzhou 廣州.
My mother’s and maternal grandparents’ village. 永安村 (Yong’an Village) in 台山 (Taishan)
I enjoy strength training at the gym, hanging out with friends and family, attending music concerts, watching basketball, and learning more about photography.
How did you hear about Roots?
My sister had a handful of co-workers who participated in Roots Plus (2018). They wrote a blog post for work and my sister shared it with me. I also recently found out that my favorite professor at UCLA was a rooter!
What are you looking to accomplish?
Growing up, my mother told me many stories about her humble beginnings and what it was like to grow up in a village. I look forward to living and experiencing the community and environment my mother and maternal grandparents came from before immigrating to the United States.
What are your expectations?
I do not have any expectations going in. I just know it will be a trip of a lifetime and this experience will help me reflect on who I am today
Choose a food that describes you?
I would like to visit my paternal grandfather's village 隔塘村 (gaak tong cyun) in Zengcheng 增城. I decided to save my paternal grandmother's village 南朗鄉 in Shunde 顺德 for another time, as I have a lot more resources on my paternal grandfather's side than I do for my paternal grandmother.
I like to read, play video games, blog, listen to music and podcasts, bake; go camping, hiking, kayaking; try new foods and explore new places!
How did you hear about Roots?
I've been doing research on my paternal grandfather's side of the family for 5 years now but hit a wall when I tried looking for our home village. As a lot of the resources seemed to focus on the Sze-yap area of 廣東 Province, I wasn't able to do much more and stopped trying to find it.
One day, I was looking for more resources and came across an old website under the Chinese Culture Center, which redirected me to the Him Mark Lai Digital Archive. After some exploring, I found the database of villages in 廣東 with associated surnames, but none of them included my home village.
I thought I had hit yet another brick wall - until I started googling one of the headers in the Digital Archive, "The Roots Program". I quickly found references to the program and old exhibits on a few websites but thought they might have stopped the program because I didn’t see anything recent. Imagine my surprise when I found the Friends of Roots site & the Tumblr blog…!
What are you looking to accomplish?
Growing up my paternal grandparents spoke mostly Cantonese, so I never got to ask them questions about their childhood, how they met, or what it was like to raise a family in Hong Kong, let alone about my ancestors or our home villages. I’m hoping to regain some of these stories from our family through visiting relatives in Hong Kong, where my grandfather’s and father’s generation grew up and paying my respects at family graves across Hong Kong.
Through visiting my paternal great-grandfather’s home village in China, I also hope to regain a sense of identity that our family has since lost. Even though my paternal great-grandparents left the home village to go to Hong Kong in the late 1930’s, my great-grandfather had to leave the family at the start of the war, because the family was afraid something would happen to him in a city under Japanese occupation. Our family never heard from him again, and it was presumed that he had passed away back in the home village. Though my grandfather has been back to the village in the late 2000’s, he didn’t talk much about his trip with the rest of our family, and we don’t have any records where the village may have been.
So, in visiting my home village and reconnecting with whatever family is left there, I hope to learn more about my great-grandfather and grandfather’s generation, as well as reconnect with family still there. I also hope to get a sense of what growing up in the village might have been like for my great-grandfather, what he liked to do, what the village looks like, etc.
What are your expectations?
I don’t have many expectations other than going back, reconnecting with family there, and seeing what the village looks like. My great-grandfather returned to the village in the early 1940s, so I would like to visit his grave if I can. I’ve heard that when my grandfather went back to the village, he rebuilt his father’s tomb at the time.
But I can’t wait to taste all the delicious food in Hong Kong & Guangdong, learn more about overseas Chinese - including those who migrated to Southeast Asia, hopefully, and get a sense for what Southern China is like.
Choose a food that describes you?
Jakarta-style bakmie - It's something that I grew up eating as a part of birthday celebrations, represents both the Chinese & Tionghoa (Chinese Indonesian) sides of my family, & reflects on a range of experiences that I share with others being a part of multiple cultures.
Village
Kaiping, Guangdong Province, China. 開平中股鄉赤坎屋上樓村.
What do you do for fun?
Rock climbing, running, cooking, and adventuring!
How did you hear about Roots?
I heard about Roots through co-founder Al Cheng. My boyfriend introduced me to him as we were having a delicious bun bo hue lunch. At the end of the lunch, Al remarked that I probably have roots in Guangzhou. We connected on Facebook and I saw his program posts. I was intrigued, applied, and the rest is history!
What are you looking to accomplish?
After an intimidating visit to Hong Kong in 2011, where I could not demonstrate enough language skills to get around, a visit to China seemed so intimidating. This will be my first trip to the mainland so I’m hoping to get a better understanding of Chinese culture and connect it with my upbringing.
What are your expectations?
Good food, good company, and hopefully not too many mosquitos!
Choose a food that describes you?
Ice Cream :) Sweet and refreshing!
漢塘村 in 台山市省冲蔞镇達材鄉. The village is where my parents were born and raised and also where my paternal grandfather was born and where my maternal grandfather grew up starting around five years old.
I enjoy hanging out with my friends, eating good food, being in nature, exercising, watching movies, sharing stories, being present.
How did you hear about Roots?
I visited the Roots website after seeing a facebook post linking to it from a friend.
What are you looking to accomplish?
I am looking to better understand my parents by visiting the village where they were born and grew up and to imagine what life must have been like for them. I also want to talk to people who might remember my grandparents and have information about them.
What are your expectations?
I would like to connect with my fellow Rooters, hear their stories and why they wanted to do Roots, visit my village with my brother, who is also a Rooter this year, and to see the village that he chose. I would like to learn more about Chinese history, especially when my parents and grandparents were living in China and to contextualize family events within broader Chinese history.
Choose a food that describes you
Some of my staple foods: white rice with laap cheng and chau baak toi thlem (Chinese sausage with stir-fry baby bok choy) and unsweetened Hong Kong (HK) style milk tea. The rice dish appears simple but is very hearty like me, with the right mix of meat/veggies, sweet/savory. At the same time, I am unique in my bold and deep expressions, similar to HK milk tea, which is a unique spin to a classic tea with milk concept but it's particularly bold in flavor because it's double- or multi-brewed and it's full of depth from evaporated/condensed milk.
Village: 台山水步毛坪村 (Taishan Shuibu Maoping Village)
What do you do for fun? I like to do indoor bouldering, taking photos, and hanging out with people
How did you hear about Roots?
My cousin, Scott Leung, and my aunt and uncle, Ray and Karen Leung, all went on Roots and recommended that I check it out
What are you looking to accomplish?
I just wanted to see where my grandfather grew up and where my greatgrandfather and greatgrandmother lived
What are your expectations?
I didn't have any expectations because my family hasn't had any communication with the village since for the past 40 years. I went in with an open mind, ready to accept every new experience
.Choose a food that describes you?
Kettle Corn. Savory is serious. Sweet is fun. I'd like to think I'm both, but also 90% hot air.
Wong Cyun in Toisan - 台山 三合 潢村 河清里. This is my paternal great grandfather's village
Eat! There's so much amazing food in the Bay Area. I also love keeping up with my bullet journal, going on hikes, and reading fiction. I've really been enjoying reading books by Asian American female authors lately. Some recent favorites are Chemistry by Weike Wang, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, and A Place for Us by Fatima Fahreen Mirza.
How did you hear about Roots?
I heard about Roots from my mom's cousin's wife Liana Koehler, Roots alum and Roots lecturer. It came up in conversation at dinner after my grandpa's funeral. She said I had to do Roots, and I was immediately sold. Roots came at the perfect time.
What are you looking to accomplish?
I am hoping to learn more about a side of my family that I don't know much about--my paternal grandma's side. I grew up extremely close to my grandma, and I want to be able to show her pictures of her father's village because she was never able to visit. I also just want to learn more about Toisan, even basic information like what people eat and grow and what they do for fun. Both sides of my family are from Toisan, so it has shaped my family and my experience of being Chinese in the US in huge ways, but I know very little about the region.
What are your expectations?
I hope to find the right village! Other than that, I am trying to approach my rooting with little expectation and to stay open to whatever might happen. I expect it to be an emotional experience for me for sure.
Choose a food that describes you?
Fried rice from Fung Wah on Mission Street in Daly City
Village: I'm visiting my paternal grandma's village of 衝洋向南村
What do you do for fun? I hang with people that are easier for me to hang with for fun.
How did you hear about Roots? I learned about Roots two years ago from a friend's Facebook feed! I marinated on the idea of applying until I actually did.
What are you looking to accomplish? I’m looking to reflect on my relationships with family members who’ve had the most direct impact on my life—like the one with my paternal grandma, who raised me. I want this trip, in the long run, support my process of grounding more of my life in my Chinatown organizing work.
What are your expectations? My expectations are simply to get a feel and look of where my grandma grew up. She don't tell me much herself, so I’m gonna discover more about her myself.
Choose a food that describes you? I'm gonna say fries. Fries done well are golden and crispy, but get kinda whack over time as they get soggier. I usually start strong in many things but my energy dips over time and some times I'm kinda whack towards the end, haha...
Village - Dick Hoi, Toisan
Fun - I dance, garden, bake, and love being in the outdoors
Hear about Roots - Through my sister who found out through social media haha
Accomplish - (?) in life? in roots? - For Roots I wanted to accomplish finding my village, seeing the school I have heard so much about, and finding a base of friends who want to explore their Chinese American identities together and eat good food together. Expectations - I didn't know what to expect from this program. I expected it would be exciting, rigorous, tiring, and fun. I also expected it to be like solving a mystery/Clue/puzzle
Food - Dung/Jung - Have to open up the leaves to enjoy the inside! Filled with surprises like peanuts, lup cheong, egg, etc. Warm, comfort food that is a classic! Picture - I'll send you one once I get home!
2. What do you do for fun?
I enjoy exploring new places, trying new things, and checking things off my to-do/travel bucket list during my free time. I love spending quality time with friends and family while having delicious food. As long as it is a day with blue skies, I do not mind what I'm doing as long as I'm outside!
3. How did you hear about roots?
I heard about roots through a friend who went on this program and shared her experience through social media.
4. What are you looking to accomplish?
I am looking to dive deeper into the history of China and Chinese immigration to the states with emphasis on Cantonese and Toishanese context. I am excited about the opportunity to visit other villages in the Pearl Delta River Region and to return to my ancestral village.
5. What are you expectations?
I did not have much expectations going in other than hoping that our cohort will support one another wholeheartedly.
6. Choose a food that describes you
Some type of dish that has onions because I have a lot of layers.
I'm visiting my paternal great grandfather's village: 江門市蓬江區荷塘镇三丫沙滘村.
I love to cook food and sing with friends, join the occasional pick-up soccer game, try different dance classes, read, and get outside.
How did you hear about Roots?
I first learned about Roots from my mom, but it wasn't until I heard Steve Owyang speak about the program at a CAA anniversary dinner that I seriously considered applying.
What are you looking to accomplish?
To learn more about my family's history so I can understand myself better and connect more deeply with my Chinese heritage.
What are your expectations?
To meet my Xinhui relatives and see the village, old house, house, and gravesite of my ancestors.
Choose a food that describes you?
Peanut butter (because I love it and chew on ideas/questions for a while
