“Dear Daddy:  Your daughter wishes you a happy Lunar New Year!”  This photo of me with its special message was mailed from Taiwan to my father in the United States where he was in graduate school in the early 1960s.  Our family was not able to reunite until three years later in the American Midwest. Many 1.5-generation Asian-Americans like me have a similar life story of initial separation, then immigration, and finally reunification.  Postal systems provided the communication link that bridged the physical distance and lessened the loneliness.  Today, when immigrant families use different smartphone apps as a favorite means of instant and no-cost communication, the thought of a piece of mail taking weeks to reach its destination is incomprehensible to many.  But I am deeply grateful that because of “snail mail,” I have this treasured memento of a special bond between a father and his daughter.  

– Lily Liu, Translator of essays of contemporary Chinese women writers

Relationship:  Im/migrant who arrived as a child Im/migrant who arrived as a child