Harsh immigration policy, and turmoil in China, separated my family for generations - Los Angeles Times

Op-comic: My family has a legacy of absent fathers. But that doesn’t define our future

Illustrated black and white image of trees on rocks

By Teresa Wong

Sept. 22, 2024 3 AM PT

Our family history begins with the Ming Dynasty, more than five hundred years ago.

When my ancestors moved south from central China in 1499, it determined our fates

Canada's 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act kept part of my family separated for decades

My parents didn't grow up with their fathers around

My maternal and paternal grandparents were victims of Chinese Communist purges in the 1950s and sent to work camps

We have a family history of separation. An inherited fracture. A legacy of longing.

When we experiment with Chinese brush painitng, I think about my forefathers

In this style of painting, what is absent is just as important as what's present.

Legacy is not the same as destiny. We can't escape history, we also can't it let history determine our future.

Teresa Wong is a Chinese Canadian cartoonist and the author of “All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey,” from which this piece is adapted.

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