Years ago my own father told me how his parents had friends who lost their lives at sea, in their attempt to swim to Hong Kong from China

How so many people forgot history that had been recorded in detail from only 60-70 years ago with living witnesses is beyond me https://twitter.com/sophia_yan/status/1299178630761689089

My dad was an infant, so my grandfather paid big $ to the snakehead who held him and my aunt by hand to walk across the bridge to HK to pretend they're his children

My uncle fled to Macao and then attempted to go over by boat

My grandfather was turned back on his first attempt

My oldest uncle was also turned back on his first attempt - he didnt speak Canto, got questioned by the police and blew his cover right away

My grandmother did the trip half on foot and something about how she piggybacked a snakehead to wade across certain streams to get in HK

(my dad's memories aren't super clear about these details as he was young)

A family of six literally took over a year to reunite in HK & various attempts - they lost everything -1st week in HK my dad said they slept on newspapers in a barren room, had only chillion rice for food

My grandfather was a KMT official so they lived comfortably but lost almost everything when they came to HK. From the spoiled youngest son my dad spent years in poverty, spoke of stories of getting water from wells with no shoes, selling my grandfather's calligraphy for food

He absolutely HATES food waste because he said hunger "is a fire that rips through your stomach" - as a child I learned how to recite this poem before I was 4/5 because my dad would not let us live if we waste food

...
鋤禾日當午，汗滴禾下土。誰知盤中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。

My grandfather died in poverty and my own uncle, in secretly supporting KMT, got into trouble and was basically under house arrest in his final years. He died alone in China. All my dad managed to bring back was his ashes. Both of them told my dad Communism is not to be trusted

The regime also killed a great grandparent who was a known philanthropist in his town, who was hung by the students he sponsored during the Cultural Revolution

Another great aunt died by hanging for literally doing nothing but just having a small plot of land

So yeah F the CCP

I'll be damned if, after all the struggles my grandparents have gone through, after all these sufferings of relatives who were innocent, to still have a mental allegiance to this regime which destroyed so much culture, history, spirit of what used to make China great

For turning HK back into a place where people, despite their love for the city, have to flee because something as simple as text messages and forum posts are now considered a threat to national security, how can people support this shit hole regime? This is 2020 not 1960!

Quoting Lung Ying Tai's moving collection of stories of those who flee China - her book 大江大海 1949 (Big River, Big Sea - United Stories of 1949) is a must read for all- these tales of separation, the hurt and pain don't stop at one generation