Separation and Reunio

Yanyuan Chen (Yvonne)

ESL 100

Cause & Effect Writing

2/28/2015

Separation and Reunion

       Every time I look up and see a plane in the sky, I think I am so lucky living in the age of freedom. Even though I live in Chicago now, the distance can’t separate me from my family in China. However, in 1950s China, the Taiwan Strait made many people lose their families. Taiwan Island split off from mainland, China when the Kuomintang fled the mainland after their defeat in the Chinese civil war in 1949. In the meantime, there was no shipping between Taiwan and Mainland China, and communication by letter or phone. My grandmother was one of those people who lost her family members at that time. She went back to mainland to visit her grandmother without my great- grandparents at that time. However, at the same time Chiang Kaishek fled to Taiwan, and he cut off all of the relation between Taiwan and Mainland China. My grandmother separated with my great- grandparents from then on. I can’t imagine how my grandmother lived without her parents. The separation of Taiwan and the Mainland not only changed the country, but also changed the fate of my grandmother.

       At the beginning, the separation made my grandma become an orphan and she had a painful childhood. When my grandma separated from her parents, she was only seven years old. She was not mature enough to live independently, so she could only live in her relative’s home. However, almost all of the rural areas in China were very poor at that time. There were eight people in her relative’s family, and they didn’t have enough food to give my grandma. Due to the situation, my grandma couldn’t attend school, and she had to work hard with her relatives in the fields. She had to work hard to feed herself at her early age.

       The second effect of the separation was that it made my grandma become a child bride. My grandma became a child bride when she was twelve years old because her uncle died. The other relatives had no ability to raise her, so my grandma was sent to a poor family to become a child bride. Many families had no money for their sons to get married at that time, so many people had to raise a daughter- in- law as a child bride. My grandma got married with my grandpa when she was sixteen because she had no choice. She had no right to choose her childhood and even marriage.

       The most important influence of the separation was that my grandma never saw her parents again since the separation, and it had changed my family values at the same time. After the separation, my great- grandparents couldn’t return to their hometown, and they had to stay in Taiwan. They missed their daughter and homeland, but they couldn’t contact each other at that time. Even after Taiwan and China normalized relations in1987, my grandma still didn’t see her parents again. Even though she was grown up and a mother of three children, she still felt sad and helpless. My grandma often taught my father and every family member to cherish every minute that they spend with family members. She often told me that it was the regret of her lifetime that she couldn’t reunite with her parents.

       

     Today, I am in the United States. There is a long distance with my family, but it can’t stop us from reuniting. Every time when I see a plane, I feel I am luckier than my grandma, because I live in a free and peaceful world. My grandma’s experience has deeply affected me until now, and it teaches me to cherish every minute that I spend with my family members because sometimes a separation is for a lifetime.