Its good to catch up with relatives from my mother's extended family this new year.their children are now grandma's.moms father came from sayap perfecture in Guangzhou where toishan,yunping,enping n xinhui are county.mostly agriculture n aquaculture activities are carried out thro generations.my dad's village is called sek tou or stone and my mom's village is called dai lam or big forest.they spoke to each other in native toishan dialect but never taught us.
My cousin took my fourth aunt or mom's youngest sister n my eldest sister to visit daj lam village 7 years ago.glad to know their standard of living is so good with all modern amenities.they have farms n fish ponds and supply their own restaurant with fresh produce.my aunt n sisters rave about the freshness n delicious food.my cousin said they were inviting us back to pay a visit.this time I plan to visit my maternal grandpa's home village .Mom said he was literate n worked in accounts for a tin mine in kl but his was an arranged marriage with my grandma who was illiterate.so nowadays love marriages break up easily but these arranged marriages endured thro good n bad times,thro war n peace.i really would like to discover my late grandpa's personal background.i have kept the 2 paintings of English roses an English sea captain of a merchant ship gifted him when he was working in the mining company.
Maybe now with more time on my hands and to leave a legacy of family history to future generations and to keep the family history alive for extended family of cousins from Canada,the UK,the US and South East Asia,my personal dream is to trace the history of my maternal n paternal grandparents and their early days in Guangzhou.Its good for overseas Chinese to know the roots although our identity is in a different context..the Chinese proverb,when you drink water,remember the source of the water.so I will write it as a narrative story rather than a timeline of events.the Chan paternal grandparents n the Kok maternal grandparents and how their paths crossed when their children joined in marriage and started a new life in a faraway land.
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