In Chinese culture, the highest priority is your family and its continued prosperity. It is why my parents sacrificed their own well-being in order to make our family stronger and my future brighter.But the lessons my parents tried to teach me about the importance of family would compete daily against growing up in a world that was so different from theirs. One day, coming home from class while studying abroad in Australia, I learned that my paternal grandmother, the only grandparent I had ever known had had a stroke. In the following months, my mother with quiet dedication would take the long journey after work to take care of her mother-in-law. By her loving example, she taught her hardheaded daughter the meaning of family. I never got to say goodbye to grandmother, she passed away a week before I came back to New York City and it remains my biggest regret. But when I wear the jade ring bought by my mother and passed down to me from my grandmother, I'm reminded of her, who I am as a Chinese-American, and the meaning of family. 

– Alice Wong

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant