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Chapter 1  Chapter  p Introduction In 1949, shortly after the Communists took over the reins of mainland China, I went back to Guangzhou (or Canton), the capital of south China, from the British colony of Hong Kong. At that time, communications between Guangzhou and Hong Kong were disrupted because the Kowloon-Canton Railway was jointly owned by the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, and with the taking over of Guangzhou by the Communists, it took some time before new rules and regulations of the railway were ironed out by the authorities. So I walked all the way for seven days. Why did I go back to China at a time when millions were fleeing the country? Would I do it again if I could relive my life once more? Those were questions many friends have asked me. I suppose when I was in my twenties, I was naïve, adventurous, romantic, a little patriotic and also primarily, because my husband decided to go and I thought it was my duty to go with him. To answer the above questions in detail, I have to go back to my childhood and trace how my thoughts and character developed. My Childhood In the spring of 1922 my mother was pregnant with her second child. My father took her from Hong Kong to Macau, a Portuguese colony only three hours from Hong Kong by steamboat. My mother went to the well-known Portuguese obstetrician Dr. Barros for a pregnancy check-up. When it was over, with a solemn face, Dr. Barros told my parents that my mother was not pregnant but had a tumour in her abdomen. My parents were shocked at the news. They had entered the doctor’s office in such a blissful state of mind expecting to welcome a second child only to be  China, Bound and Unbound told such dreadful news. Instantly, both my parents wept bitterly in front of the doctor. Back in Hong Kong my father took my mother to Dr. Allen, our family doctor, for a second pregnancy test, and at the end Dr. Allen confirmed that my mother was pregnant, and told her that in the early spring of the next year her second baby would be born and she should take the baby to see Dr. Barros in Macau and show him that the baby was the “tumour” in my mother’s abdomen. I was this baby. I was born in 1923 to a well-to-do family in Hong Kong. I was the second child of seven children. The third daughter died at the age of one and according to my horoscope my family believed that my feet were too “heavy” and stepped on the sister below me, killing her. My mother made me wear a golden band around my right ankle to prevent me from stepping on other siblings. I hated this band because it made me different from other children who often laughed at me. One day while alone in the street I secretly kicked off the gold band and freed myself. When my mother found out, instead of reprimanding me she was happy about it and said whoever found the gold band would take on the curse from our family. My paternal grandfather, Huang Jianhou, came to Hong Kong at the age of fifteen from a nearby village in south China and worked his way up. He had three wives, or rather, one wife and two concubines. They bore him five sons and eleven daughters, and my father, Huang Rui, was the second son. Eight daughters left home upon marrying, but all five sons and their families together with the three unmarried daughters lived with my grandfather, in a three-storey building. Upon arrival in Hong Kong, my grandfather was an errand boy in a herbal shop in the North-South Herbal Market, then a salesman, later an accountant, then the manager, until finally with some savings he bought the shop from its owner. He was thrifty, careful in business and blessed by fortune, and his life was a success story. He had a thriving business in the North South Herbal Market in Hong Kong and he expanded his business to Macau. When my grandfather was alive, he lived in a big house with his five sons and family, together with his unmarried daughters. This was indeed a house of great excitement and turmoil. As far back as I could recall, a day rarely passed by without something new happening...

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