I had an interview with my dad for my kindred project. I asked him in Chinese and then I have to translate our conversation into English. Here, I’m going to share it with you.
My father’s name is Fu-Jung, Hsieh. My grandparents chose this name for him because they hoped that he could bring good luck and glory to the family. The name my grandparents gave him and my uncles have a common character “Fu” in the middle, which means lucky and good fortune in Chinese. My oldest uncle’s name is “Fu-Lai”. It means good fortune would come as he was born. Another older brother of my dad was named “Fu-Chin”. It’s also the same meaning as the oldest uncle. My younger uncle’s given name is “Fu-Shun”, which means good fortune and smooth going.
My dad was born on July 15 1961. He’s not sure about the exactly date he was born. The birthday registered on his identification card was just the day he enrolled the residence. Chang Hua is my father’s hometown. There were also other relatives living in Chang Hua, such as my grandpa’s brothers and my dad’s cousins. But after a period of time, they moved to other places and we are not sure where they are now. The house my dad used to live was a three-section compound house. There were five rooms, one bathroom, and a room for worshiping. Their toilet was built at another place so that it wouldn’t smell so stinky that they couldn’t sleep well at night.
My dad used to play with their dogs. They had three hybrid dogs before, but one died after another when those dogs were getting old. My dad also played whipping tops and other games that wouldn’t cost too much money. On holidays, they would celebrate, but not in a sumptuous way because they were just a farming family. On children’s birthday, my grandma would cook a special meal for them. They would have chicken and eggs as a special meal on birthday.
Here’s another question I asked my dad. But he said it was not a story that deserves to be mentioned but I still want to share it with you. Because my oldest uncle owed a lot of money and he couldn’t pay his debt, he decided to escape. He ended up becoming a monk in
America. It was a passive way. However, I know that he does well in
America. He helps children and sometimes he sends us e-mail and photos. The change is that I couldn’t call him “uncle” anymore. Instead, we have to call him “master”. It is also kind of interesting!
