Beijing  14 June 1992

Yang’s Residence

 There are lot of people are work hard to make the simple plain courtyard with no grass covered onto the beautiful venue with the traditional setting for a celebration. A numbers of bamboo mat woven are laid in the ground with some distances between each pieces of the mat. The long wooden tables made from chestnut tree are placed in each of the mat as the dining table. The several transparent canopies also cover the courtyard, which gives an opportunity for the audiences to gazing the beautiful scenery in the sky during the night.

Tomorrow will be an important day for the rest family member of Yang. It was annual year gathering of all the branch of the families. The distant cousins from throughout the corner of world will pay the visit to mainland of Chinese ancestry and strengthen the bonds between each other’s. This also an opportunity to preserve the traditional culture from the ancestor for younger. Most of them are not pure blood of Chinese.

Yang’s family has begun the tradition of mix-marriage for a long time since 140 hundred ago. Yang’s family was the surviving family members of a prominent trader in previous China dynasty. The years before, that prominent trader family suffered a great affliction where mostly the healthy male heirs not able to survive the childhood and the birth rate of females gradually decrease. It was the one of the tragic events in their family for past centuries that happened as if the family was disgraced by the god favor. The family economic also suffered a great loss because the declined of the Qing dynasty. They are no longer either rich or poor nor happy.

       After the sole male family member reached the adulthoods, he believes that perseverance are more important than anything, their family bloodline cannot reach an end only because some reasons. Therefore he make decides to marry off the surviving female cousins of his to those who held high position in different country what they live at the moment and have potential rise to high position some time later : after the world has settled down.

        The plan was agreed by his cousins with a promise that they will never lost in contact and will always part of business circle in future. The one who are surviving from this calamity are given something to ensure their original kin of the family. Things that is very valuable.

While they are on the different part of the world, they are some rules that they must follow on to ensure their bloodline is safe or that unsaid things will happen again. Should that things happen again ? Only them and their genealogy know the answer.

    The sole male are marrying one of his cousin who are the youngest one to keep the bloodline goes on. They move out to the northern country away from the previous comfort and begin a start from a scratch.  They have a rough life but still able to surviving until the last breath of him. Their sons are the one who continue to preserve everything they work on. They led a humble life style for decades of years until the right time come on.

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SanXing

“ Hey! What are you staring at?” A man in twenties lightly taps the shoulder of the older man who begins to stop cleaning the dining chairs. He cannot help but to worries too. He is someone that they really care. Both of them are cleaning the dining tables that are in the corner.

“ Nothing.” He quickly denied the question and try to cover up by brush the one of the dining chair very roughly with the cloth rag.

     “ SanXing gege. Don’t be bashful so much.” The younger one kept urging him to share what is interrupting his mind.

  “ Well, Miae’s father… I just” He stuttering at the beginning speech. He don’t really know what to do. “ I  am actually..”

        “ What is going on ?”  A Korean man come to their tables and sat down next to him while hugging on his knee. That man eagerly waiting an answer with big eye smile.

     “ Pfft. Stop doing that, Arman.” Another man came to that tables but this time it was a Japanese one. His name is Manatsu Abe.