Off to my mom's ancestral village!

[David Wong]

I will be taking my mom to her ancestral village. Of course, I delayed our flight so I can watch our great BC Lions football team take the Grey Cup this weekend.

Oops, sidetracked a bit there... So much of the genealogy has been on the paternal / male lineage... so I will now spend time tracking my mother's side, and her mother's lineage.

I will be China and our good colleague here, Henry Tom, will also be there the same time. So maybe we will bump into each other during our pilgrimages won't that be cool?

Behave all of you... catch you all in a short while.

David

[helen]

Choice - have a great trip - discovering people who actually look like you - or your Aunty. Luck you - I won't get there for another 2-3 years. Happy tripping.

[David Wong]

I just got back from a few weeks in China. A real eye opener... I had chronicled a bit of it on my new blog for the first week, whilst I was on our Premier's delegation, but the moment I went into rural China. It was almost impossible to hook onto a reliable internet connection (they did exist, but wasn't as convenient as we're used to over here in the West).

One warning about my blog. Those that know me know that I like to say things the way it is, so it will likely offend some with my colourful metaphors and choice of language. But if you're still game, here's the link to my new blog, "the Ugly Chinese Canadian": blog.generasian.ca/

I managed to locate the ancestral villages of each of my grandparents (four villages in total)... I also tracked some other relations throughout southern China via marriages and ancient locations of original clans' villages. Really interesting stuff.

Last bit of interesting news... the Kaiping diaolous - these were fortified towers built by overseas Chinese as contributions back to their villages at the turn of the century as protection against bandits and as symbols of prestige. I spent a few days travelling throughout Kaiping photographing these old buildings. These old towers are now protected as historic monuments by the Chinese government and is now going through the formalities for UNESCO world heritage status.

I hope to publish all 200+ photos of these eclectic towers onto my personal website soon.

David