Issue 12 Moments of Reflection Home Page

Does Time Build Walls? Han-Ching Wu from Taiwan Photo: Claris Home Page While visiting The Great Wall of China, an idea emerged in his mind. Time had built "a great wall" between him and his home country, and there was another wall between him and his son. A character in a movie reflects on his past and his relationship with his son. Watching this movie causes a young woman to reflect on her own past and to wonder about the relationship with her children in the future I once watched a movie titled A Great Wall. The director was a Chinese American. The story of the movie described how Peter, a Chinese man had immigrated to the U.S. about forty years ago when he was a teenager and had never gone back. He married a Japanese woman and had a 20-year -old son, Paul. One day, when we was middle-aged, he started missing his hometown in Beijing of Mainland China so much that he decided to go back to visit his elder sister and other relatives who still lived there. He also wanted to show his son the place where he came from. When they (Peter, his wife, and Paul) arrived in Beijing, they were welcomed very enthusiastically by their relatives. However, after forty years of separation, everything had changed so much and become so different from what Peter remembered and expected. He was disappointed, but his son was amazed at all the things he saw. He was what we call a real banana—outside he was a Chinese (yellow) and inside an American (white). His behavior looked very funny in the Chinese society. He was polite and friendly and said "Hi!" to everyone he met, but no one responded to his greeting. People in China looked at things differently than he did. For example, when he asked his cousin why she let her mother open her mail and did not expect her mother to respect her privacy, the girl asked, "What is privacy?" She thought that the Chinese parents, of course, had the right to check all their children's stuff. One day when the family visited the most famous Chinese ancient architecture, The Great Wall, an idea emerged in Peter's mind. Yes, time was the most magic architect, and it had built "a great wall" between him and his home country. There was also another one between him and his son. I liked this movie very much. My parents moved from Mainland China to Taiwan because of the civil war in China in 1949. They returned to their hometown to visit after a forty-year separation in 1989. They had the same feelings as Peter. I still remember the last time my father talked with me about something he had never mentioned before. He was a quiet man, but at that time, he talked a lot about his childhood and his mother, my grandmother whom I had never met. I could strongly feel his regret and homesickness. He passed away three months later. Whenever I am in the States, I also feel there is a wall between the society and me. Sometimes, it is not only the language problem, but also the culture and concepts. When I have contact with those first-generation immigrants, I find they have the same feelings—they don't know where they belong at all. The longer they are away from their hometown, the harder it is to return. When I think of my children, I start wondering what kind of world they will face. Will time build a wall between them and me?  More moments of reflection My Grandmother's Village | My Success as a TV Hostess Remembering Hutong Beijing | Catalan Vertigo The Sweat on My Mother's Face  Return to: Moments of Reflection | Issue 12 | Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine - ©1997-2007 - topics mag@gmail.com - Sandy and Thomas Peters