Family memories

Here are me and Yvonne visiting the Forbidden City with our cousins in 1979. Seven of us in this photo reunited last week in Hunan.

This looks like it could have been 1949 or 1979!

Here we were yesterday, again in the Forbidden City.  

Wu Platts flanked by Chris and Ping

Below is a picture of me and Yvonne with our grandparents in Taiwan in 1969.  I'm taking Neil, Oscar and Ruby to pay our respects at my grandparents' grave in Taipei this weekend.  This is the grandfather who always dreamt of returning to Shimen in Hunan. He never made it, but his writings and other artifacts are kept in a library in Hunan.  Of the five children, only my father made it out of China before 1949. 

Taipei 1969, chilling with the grandparents

The science wing of an elementary school in Shimen bears my grandfather's name.  I wonder what he would have thought of the scene when we visited the school last week.  Many of the kids had never seen Caucasians or biracial people before, and they clamored to meet Neil, Chris, Oscar and Ruby.  It was a bit surreal for us to visit a place that meant so much to my grandfather, a place that he knew like the back of his hand.  We felt both rooted there, with hordes of people coming up to us to grip our hands and tell us how we are related, but also like complete outsiders.  It was intense!

Kids lined up to greet us at the school