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The Girl Who Never Shed A Tear
On my mother, who created the ocean
There are myths about how the earth was formed, how mountains were created, and why the sky is blue.
In Greek mythology, the earth’s landscape was shaped by Titans and Olympian gods waging majestic wars that carved valleys and peaks.
In Chinese mythology, dragons — symbols of benevolent power and good fortune — slithered beneath the earth, pushing up the land to form the mountains we see.
But for the ocean — there is no myth of gods nor fantastical creatures. No tall tales of righteous wars nor cosmic conquests.
For the ocean, my mother is its creator.
After childhood, my mother ceased to weep.
At least not in the way most people think of crying — with tears.
The year my mom turned 10 also marked the last year her family was truly together.
In 1958, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, a campaign to transform China from an agrarian society into a modern, industrial, and socialist nation.
Her parents were part of the intellectual class and affiliated with the Kuomintang (KMT), so were deemed targets to be re-educated by the Communist Party.
