How It Could Have Been
The Other Way Around: While going through 100 boxes of junk, I found a file of documents concerning my mother and father's expired student visas. There were handtyped notices threatening deportation. I never knew how close I came to growing up in a rice field during the Cultural Revolution. That was the fate of my half-sisters. My parents wept when they became US citizens.
If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”
—Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife
About Amy
As a child Amy Tan believed her life was duller than most. She read to escape. Her parents wanted her to be a doctor and a concert pianist. She secretly dreamed of becoming an artist. She began writing fiction when she was 33. Her first short story was...
Connections
Causes Amy Tan Supports
Self Help for the Elderly
Pets Unlimited
Squaw Valley Community of Writers
San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Opera
Amazing story, Amy
No doubt there is a lot more to the story...as to how they avoided deportation and such. Perhaps a "prequel" to Joy Luck Club is in the works? :)
As tragic and painful as some of this may seem, the fact that you evaded such a fate should confirm you were put on the planet to do a job nobody else could do.
Nothing is an accident.
Eric
Nothing like a dose of
Nothing like a dose of reality to make us count our blessings. I got NZ citizenship a few years ago. The ceremony was so moving as so many of the participants were refugees from war-torn nations, or people who had given up everything to move to a country where they hoped to build a solid and secure future for their children.
Humbled and Grateful
I too would be interested in knowing how they managed to avoid deportation. My mother's story involved escape from a small town and an abusive marriage. I look at the cousins left behind and I am humbled and grateful that I did not end up in their circumstances because of a courageous decision made by my mother. I thank you for sharing.