Who Are You, and What Are You Doing Here?

Welcome. This is a blog chronicling my efforts to write a book about the history of the extended family on my father’s side, the Zhus. Some answers to questions you may have:

Who are you?

My name is John Zhu. I’m a designer, copy editor, writer, and a few other [fill in the blank]-ers who’s currently residing in North Carolina. I was born in China and lived there until I was 10, when I moved to the United States with my parents.

• My freelance design, copy-editing, and writing business site
• My main blog, Matters of Varying Insignificance
• My photo blog, WYSIWYG

What’s this book you mentioned?

I’ve started working on a book about the history of my father’s side of the family, all of whom, with the exception of my father, are living in China. I plan for this book to begin with the story of my paternal grandfather and follow the lives of my father’s generation of the family — four brothers and four sisters.

My paternal grandparents and their eight children.

What’s so interesting about their story?

In many ways, I feel like the story of my extended family over the past five decades is a microcosm of the dramatic and sometimes traumatic changes that China has undergone during the same timespan. While there has been a lot written about those changes in Western literature, much of what I’ve read have been either from a macro level — talking about what’s happening nationally — or a kind of a passer-by perspective where the author swoops in, gets one or two anecdotes about a subject’s lives, and swoops out. There have also been a number of biographies or autobiographies, but these were usually written by people with connections to figures of some political importance.

While many works that fall into the above genres are excellent reads and provide a good glimpse into various aspects of China, I feel like one thing that has been somewhat missing is the narrative of the lives of ordinary Chinese over the past 50-some years, and that’s what I’m hoping my book will help provide. While it is impossible to talk about changes in China without at least mentioning politics, I don’t intend for this book to be about politics. Instead, it will focus on the lives and events of the Zhu family — a fairly typical Chinese family — starting somewhere in the 1930s. In the time between then and now, China has gone through a Japanese occupation, a civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and an amazing economic transformation, all events that have huge impacts on the lives of its people, and I hope to track that through my family.

Why do you want to write this book?

As China continues to emerge as a world superpower, it has inevitably come into conflict with the United States. I often feel like many American attitudes toward China stem from a lack of understanding of its people. As someone who has spent significant amounts of time living in both countries, especially during his formative years, I want to use my experience and perspective to help bridge the two cultures. I firmly believe that in order to understand a society’s present and future, you must understand its past. That’s why I want to write this book — to give the American audience a better understanding of the Chinese people’s past, which shapes their actions and attitudes today and in the future.

The other part of my motivation is the interest I’ve always had in my family’s history and my desire to chronicle it before it becomes lost.

What’s your timetable for this book?

Quite frankly, I don’t know. I’ve just started working on it and am in the information-gathering stage. And it’s not like I have a book deal or anything, so I’m not really on any kind of a deadline. I do work an 8-to-5, which limits how quickly the work on the book will progress, as does the fact that all of my extended family are in China while I’m in America and am not sure when I’ll be able to visit China again. I really wish I could get the opportunity to go live in China for a couple months, interview my relatives, and gather information. As it is, I’ll have to make do with e-mail exchanges and maybe the occasional phone call.

How does this blog tie in to the book?

Honestly, the main purpose for this blog is to serve as a motivational tool to keep me on track with the book. As I mentioned above, I don’t really have a set timetable, so I feel like I need something to stave off neglect. I feel that if I have to post something here regularly about my work on the book, it will provide an impetus for me to keep working. And I’m hoping it’ll also help generate a little bit of interest in the book from people other than myself and my family.

As far as the content of this blog goes, I foresee posting interesting tidbits about my family that turn up during my research, which may mean photos, stories, or maybe even short interview clips (though it’ll be in Cantonese, so likely won’t do most Americans readers any good). I’ll also post some background information about the people and places I’ll mention in the book. I might also throw in an occasional post or two about aspects of Chinese culture that come up as part of working on the book.

So that’s that. Thanks for visiting. Check back soon for updates.