Flying’s Family

My family lives in Guangzhou (a.k.a. Canton), the capital city of Guangdong Province, China. With modern communication technologies, I’ve been able to keep close contact with my family despite the physical distance between us.

Dad graduated from SCUT in Guangzhou, China many years ago. Therefore, Dad and I can be considered alumni of 30 years apart. (I had gone through the freshman military training and attended classes in SCUT for a few weeks before my departure for NUS in Singapore.)

Dad loves gardening. He transformed the whole rooftop of our flat in Guangzhou into a sky garden single-handedly. He has always been taking very good care of all the plants and vegetables in the garden. Throughout these years, there have been many pleasant surprises growing out of the garden amidst the “concrete forest” of Guangzhou: fresh roses with dribbling dewdrops, blooming epiphyllums after midnight, refreshing punch made with exotic passion fruits, crunchy and healthy green jujube fruits, traditional sweet soup dessert make with frangipani flowers, mouthwatering baked home-grown sweet potatoes, ... You just can’t tell what will come out next from this little wonder created by Dad!

Mom used to be a middle school teacher. She was always hardworking and cheerful.

Mom also loves travelling and taking photographs. Now, she’s “finally retired” from the busy teaching job. So she always looks out for opportunities to travel to new places—from the countryside around the Guangzhou city to the remote Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far northwest corner of China—and brings back loads of photographs with beautiful shots.

I have many relatives on both the paternal and the mathernal sides. It is inevitably difficult for us to gather in one place when there is any family event. I therefore always treasure the moments we spend together.

I love my family!