gettysburg. bullets in the ground. virgin land. (prof hollinger)

ryan’s chinese history book says that the communists would have said that my grandparents were in the group that they (the communists) termed the “intransigent reactionaries” (meaning “uncompromising ultraconservatives” … m-w says intransigent means “refusing to compromise or to abandon an extreme position or attitude”). was this supposed to be derogatory or something? haha

my grandparents moved from china to taiwan probably around 1949. my parents were born in taiwan in 1952 and moved to the us in like the 70s. i was born in rhode island in 1982. maybe i’ll settle in antarctica, with the penguins. so i’m from america, but i’m also from taiwan, but i’m also from china, and really, everyone’s from pangea.

do you ever wonder how your parents met and what they thought of each other? mine didn’t meet until both were at ohio state for grad school in the 70s and to find that “oh! my parents moved to taiwan then too!” and “oh! i’ve been in the US for about that long too!” and then “oh! my parents’ families are from the province in china right across the yellow river from yours!” must have made them feel some kind of kinship, not kinship, connectedness or something, you know, and to find someone with almost the same kind of family history must have been nice, especially in a foreign country and especially when you’re both 28 and your parents are wondering how they’ll ever find a nice person to marry you off to.

and then 22 years after you’re married you ask your eldest child why you married each other and half-heartedly lament that it ever happened, but not really. because really everything’s just fine and you get on with life, and at least you have a nice little house in a nice little suburb and three somewhat nice little children and a nice little minivan.

of course this is all speculation. speculation is fun.