I visited my family’s ancestral home in Guangdong and uncovered our family history

As we left the family home in Gulao with my son’s small hand in mine, I felt the weight and wonder of everything that came before us – the untold stories of migration, the losses and loyalties, the family feuds, the letters carried across oceans, the memories my grandmother guarded, and the resilience that carried us through generations.

While the immense wealth that our forefathers built is long gone, the story of our origins had become the true inheritance.

Coming back to Gulao as three generations was both a step into the past and a promise for the future. In learning the paths our ancestors walked, we are learning how to soften what was hard, honour what was beautiful, and pass on a gentler inheritance to my son, who will one day ask where he came from.

I am glad that, at least, we have been able to pave a path to those answers.