“What is a story, habit, or physical item that has been passed down to you?”
Karen: For years, my older cousins have given me nice clothes or shoes that they bought, rarely wore, and then outgrew, and I am always surprised by how well everything fits me. The compatibility of our senses of style, which traverse China, Canada, America, and an entire decade, and the similarity between even the sizes of our feet remind me of our familial bond. It makes me think of them at my age, wearing the shoes that are currently on my feet and bravely taking the steps that molded them into the women they are today.
Amelia: My grandfather was an engineer, but his true passion was art--to this day, he makes a new painting for each member of my family’s birthday each year. I don’t see my grandparents a lot, but I really do feel connected to my grandfather through art; it’s something that seems to hold our two generations together even through all the distance and time that has passed. He sends me photos of his paintings sometimes through WeChat and I send some of mine back to him. It’s something I’m glad to carry with me.
Andrew: My family doesn’t have too many objects that are passed on, but some I remember are the plates that my grandmother buried underground during the Korean War to be saved, and still exist to this day. It makes me think about how long the history of my country is, yet how recently we’ve had to rebuild from the ground up.
Jeanna: My parents’ story teaches me to be grateful for all the life that surrounds me. When they were growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, they didn’t have a lot of what we take for granted now. Many starved, many were struggled against, and many families were separated. They carry that experience with them in everything they do and have modeled a humble gratitude and appreciation for life that I hope to continue. I have learned that happiness does not come from having many things but rather from our ability to give thanks for the people that love us, for the food on our table, for the birds chirping outside the window, and for the sun shining on our faces. Of course there is still much to be changed and plenty of aspects of society that are not so beautiful. At the same time, we cannot let the good pass us by.
Cindy: My family has very little in the way of tangibles to pass on. They didn’t own much in Vietnam, and they owned even less when they first came here to America. But what we lack in material we make up for in stories — my mother and her seven siblings, my father and the boat he took to flee to America. Sometimes, the only medium we have for inheritance is nothing that can be held. I often struggle with feeling disconnected from my lineage, as a girl born and raised in America who every day is terrified she’s losing her culture and her language, but to be able to know and remember my parents’ lived experiences validates me endlessly.
Grace: It’s the small know hows that have been passed on to me: my mom gripping my wrist to teach me to measure the amount of water to use in a rice cooker with the tip of my index finger or my father rubbing white flower oil on my temples to ease my throbbing headaches. It’s these little tidbits that have uniquely equipped me and many other Asian children for adulthood, such that I always feel a strong sense of kinship and pride when I see Asian creators employing these techniques in videos or social media now!