𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐗.

jean came from a long line of chinese american family; she’s a third generation, and while she grew up being bilingual as a child, she is more used to conversing in english. mandarin was heavily utilized in the household when she lived with her parents in new york — brooklyn specifically — and it continued up until she was eleven, when she joined xavier’s. her lineage originated from fujian, china, and her grandparents migrated to the united states when they were young adults, building a life continued until today. jean is an only child, and so were her parents, so she’s the last of the huī family ancestry.

on the name grey, which is a literal translation from her actual family name, the family decided that it was for the better to change their names legally for the sake of fitting in — as well as to stay incognito from the chinese organization that happened to trace mutants to kidnap them for experimental purposes and personal gains. her father, who worked as a scientist at a research facility, was a mutant with untapped powers that he refused to talk about, but still acknowledged to an extent. her mother was a telepath and empath, passing down her powers to jean, and she worked as a lawyer. when jean was fourteen, in 1998, her parents died in a staged murder that remains a mystery that even she doesn’t understand until now, even when there were clues leading to people with perfect alibis. it’s suggested in some instances that the organization had finally tracked them down, and that her father’s work had something to do with the experiments conducted by the syndicate.