The Wang Family Reunion

Hi everyone! So in the spirit of trying new things out, like moving halfway around the world, I've also decided to give blogging a try so that I can chronicle my experiences and thoughts as I begin a life in Beijing. Why did I decide to move to China for a period of time? Well, there are many reasons that most of you have heard at some point, but I often forget to acknowledge the most basic, underlying reason - my family and the appreciation of my Chinese heritage, language, and culture that comes from them.

This trip to China first started with a Wang family reunion in Anhui province, composed of just my paternal grandfather, his children (my dad and his siblings), and their families. You'd think it'd be easier to get us all together, but with my Uncle Qingbo and his family in China, my family in America, and my Aunt Ruiping and her family in Japan, we haven't all gotten together in over a decade. This reunion was especially cool because my cousins are both 19 years old, and this time we talked pretty frankly and in depth about our very different lives. At night, when there wasn't much to do, I thought a lot about how my life would've been if my family had never immigrated to the West and I had grown up in Anhui.

I did get to spend time out of my head though, and there was lots of celebrating, good food, banquet rooms, toasting my relatives with tiny cups of 白酒，relatives once, twice, and three times removed, and conversation (much of which was heavily accented to the point where I just nodded my head and tried to go with the flow). All in all, it was a good time, but more importantly, hearing my parents talk about the hopes and dreams they had when they grew up in China and how far they've come since then was the perfect way to mark the start of my own independent life in China and the hopes and dreams I'm (hopefully) on my way to fulfilling.