In the year of 1933 a woman by the name of Jean Xiu was born. This woman just happens to be my grandmother. My grandma led a privileged growing up in China because she was a part of one of the wealthiest families in China. Her father was the man who had authority over all the oil, rice, and salt in China. She grew up on a large estate with acres of land for her to explore. She would spend hours running around exploring the land. Life was good for her until 1949 when Mao took over and the communist revolution started.
When the communists started to take over my great grandfather was a top priority because of his wealth and his family’s connection to the late Qing Dyanasty. At first the communists tried to occupy his house and use it as their base in Nanking, but my great grandfather was proud and would not let them enter. Then one day in 1950 the communists stormed the house and killed everyone in my grandmothers’ family except her and her sister. They burned the house down along with everything my grandmother ever knew inside it. After the burning of their house with no place to go they sought refuge with their one surviving uncle. My grandmother was forced to cut her hair so she could be passed off as boy. She also had to use her mother’s maiden name to be able to escape prosecution. My grandmother’s uncle was a doctor and convinced the communist army that my grandma and her sister were his two sons. He told the army that he was a doctor but the communists said that they needed cooks so he was forced to lower himself and cook for the soldiers in order to stay alive.
It wasn’t until 1955 after Mao had taken over and the war had settled down that my grandma was able to come out of hiding and start a family. She married a man by the name of Li Peng. One year later my mother was born and 18 years later she made her way over to America on a plane with a scholarship