My maternal grandparents passed away when I was very young. Although most of my memories of them are vague, a few are so fascinating that they are still vivid in my mind. 

   Grandma always wore her hair in a neat bun behind her head, a classic qipao, and black embroidered shoes, which were only four or five inches long, so small. I was told her feet were once bound. Being about five years old, I did not comprehend what that meant, but I was always curious about her arched feet. Grandpa was slender and over six feet tall. He always looked clean-cut, in a suit with a white dress shirt. He especially liked things to be clean and neatly arranged. I remember he would purify his drinking water and dip his ice pop in hot water to sterilize it. I was told it was because he was a medical doctor and valued a sterile environment. He kept some of his small medical items in our guest room, things such as empty apothecary jars and an apothecary weight set and balance which I used to play with as toys. 

   What impressed me most, however, was how attentive my grandparents were to each other. Because of Grandma’s bound feet, she walked very slowly and had to hold onto someone or something to keep her balance, and usually Grandpa was the one holding her hand firmly and walking slowly beside her. And whenever walking or sitting, they would lock their fingers together and whisper to each other. At that time I believed, and I still do, that couples should have such love and devotion as they grow old together. 

   In 1974, when I was six years old, Grandpa passed away at the age of ninety. Grandma passed away soon after. I believe she was too lonely to go on living without him. At Grandpa’s funeral I saw three urn slots under his tombstone. His urn was placed in the middle. As a curious child, I asked the adults about the other two slots. I was told they were for Grandpa’s two wives. My mommy told me she had a half-sister, whose mother was Grandpa’s first wife, a woman who moved to Canada many years ago. That explained the space for the third urn. For a young child, that was as much as I could understand.

   Through the years I have grown more fascinated by my grandparents’ stories of their time in Manchuria before and during World War II, and I have often wished they were still around because I have so many questions. Grandpa graduated from Taiwan Government-General Medical School in 1909 and soon after moved to Dalian, Manchuria. He had a successful medical practice and lived a luxurious lifestyle. Grandma was his second wife and never had any biological children of her own. Besides her half-sister, my mommy had one older sister and one younger brother. All three were born in Dalian. Their biological mother left Dalian after giving birth to my uncle. But she returned later to take my aunt to Taiwan, as my grandparents had to flee there after World War II and were only able to take my mommy and my uncle at that time.

   My mommy told me many of her childhood stories. Besides his medical practice, Grandpa had many real estate investments, and later owned a large parcel of land near the Laohutan Coast, where he grew apples. She and her sister and brother were born into wealth and privilege. Each child had their own nanny. They enjoyed western fancy candies such as chocolate for sweets and had an unlimited supply of apples because of the apple farm. However, she also recalled not being allowed to leave the house due to the frequent airstrikes during the war.

   In 1987, when the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Chiang Chingkuo, proclaimed the lifting of Taiwan Martial Law, and initiated communication between Taiwan and Mainland China, my uncle visited Dalian, where my grandparents used to live. He discovered that all the properties Grandpa once owned had been confiscated by the Communist government. My uncle told my mommy he believed Grandpa would be thrilled to visit his land and properties again, even though he had been forced to abandon them after the war.

   “Bound” is not a memoir of my grandparents. It is a work of fiction in which I imagined how their stories might have unfolded, based mostly on actual historical events and geographical settings. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either imaginary or used in a fictional manner. The plot, wherein the two protagonists, Yafong and Mingjie, saw each other is based on how my parents actually met. I believe romance runs in my family. Although I never met my mommy’s biological mother and heard precious little about her, I gave her a nice destiny after the war in the story, to thank her for giving birth to my loving mother.