How two generations of a Chinese migrant family established a foothold halfway across the world
In early April, I was getting my late father’s bank account balance transferred to my card. The process included a visit to the lawyer’s office, where the elderly Indian man handling my case told me there was a problem: “Your signatures on these documents don’t match. The court may reject our application." I took a look at both pages. Merely a year separated them, but my handwriting was indeed different: "I started signing my name like my dad after he passed," I said.
On my way back from the lawyer’s office, I passed the small town cemetery and I couldn’t help but recall an anecdote from a few years ago, when my dad walked past the place himself and joked: “When the time comes, bury me under this yellow soil.” His comment made me laugh at the time.
Now that he's gone, I don't want his remains to stay in this cemetery. Earlier this month I booked my flight to China with a resolution in mind—taking Dad home with me.
Renjian the Livings is the nonfiction storytelling platform under NetEase. It aims to “reconstruct life through narration.”
Translated By
Ana Padilla Fornieles is a Spanish translator, writer and creative currently based in Beijing, where she is part of Spittoon International Arts Collective and a regular contributor to The Beijinger. You can find her prose and poetry featured in The Shanghai Literary Review, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Womanhood, Sledgehammer and more. Her comics and linocut prints have appeared in Shaving in the Dark, F*EMS and Celestite Poetry. Her literary translation work has been published or is forthcoming with a series of publishing houses and magazines, such as Penguin, De Gruyter, Spittoon Magazine and Books from Taiwan.
