It's been a long week. Jiugong passed away on Monday when I was in New York. I flew back to CA on Sunday morning for the memorial and came back that evening. Popo shared some stories of her childhood and laughed about how things were back in the day before the Japanese invaded Hangzhou. Dad says she never really talked about her past much so I take every little story as a glimmer of understanding where my family came from. The fact that there are even pictures of popo and jiugong as children suggests that they were at least comfortable at that point, in the early 1930s. One funny thing about Jiugong that I didn't know before was that he had chosen his English name, Felix, because of Felix the Cat, since his last name was Mao (but not the same tone). Auntie Sally and Auntie Dora both talked about how as kids he took them on road trips and would always take huge detours to check out the nearest dam, since he had designed dams in his days as a civil engineer in Taiwan. ;) There was one picture of Jiugong standing in front of a villa that was later occupied by Chairman Mao when he was in Hangzhou (I want to figure when this was. Maybe during inspection tours of the countryside in the mid-1950s?). One thing that I just didn't have the guts to do was the three bows to Jiugong's coffin to show respect. I think it was awkward mostly because I wouldn't have done that to him in real life and act of sudden formality felt too contrived. But just in case, I did do it my mind. It was hard to look at Jiugong in a coffin. Perhaps it's due to all the Chinese studies stuff running through my veins, but my mind just can't help but wander to Lenin and Mao in particular whenever I see somebody's body on display. I think I prefer to remember Jiugong the way I see him in my mind and not the way he was in the coffin.

I want to at least mention that for the other part of Spring break, although I didn't get much schoolwork done, I did get to catch up with many good friends and it was refreshing to see them after all this time. Sigh of contentment. In New York, Wilson and I met up with Annie, Cheline, Amo, and Becca. In Boston, I stayed with Asia and Scott, met up with Annie, Shirley, and Kenny. I have a stories to tell, but I don't want it all to sound like a timeline so I will save it for another entry.