I have never seen a picture of my maternal grandmother in her younger days. The only picture I had seen growing up was taken when she was in her 60s. She wore black hat on a black background and look stately for her age.
And when she passed away in China when she was in her 80s, I remembered my mum, then 58 yrs old, crying her heart out and offering burnt incense on our field, when I was in Secondary 3 (1973) and living in Admiralty Road East in Sembawang.
When we were in Kunlun Village (my mum's hometown) in 2008, it took us a while to figure out that this woman in this picture was my maternal grandmother and not of my mum. She looked 100% like my mum when my mum was that age (late50s).
My mum returned to China in 1957, one year before I was born, but this picture of his brother, who was working in Hong Kong then, was taken earlier than that. We finally pieced the puzzle and time lapse, because the father of my nephew Dr Liao Ping and niece was just a boy standing on her left.
Notice his brother was wearing a tie and 'western suit' and to be able to work in Hong Kong in the early 50s, he must be quite educated or possess some special skills or connections.
We concluded that my mum's side was more educated and sophisticated than my dad's side. This was also confirmed from the ancestral hall of my mum's side there were 4 imperial scholars from my mum's family lineage that went to Peking to take and pass the imperial exams. Their certificates, diplomas, and commendation/appointment letters from the emperors were carved on wood and survive the ravages of time and communist cultural revolution purging because it was hidden during the turmoil years and safely mounted back on the roof ceiling instead of walls at the ancestral temple at Kunlun village.
Maybe someone in my family will translate what this one says:
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