My Maternal Grandmother

My maternal grandmother was born on June 29, 1931. She was born as Yu Shao Xian in
the Shunde District in the city of Foshan, Guangdong Province. Yu Shao Xian was born into a
huge family of eleven children. Xian was born in a lower, working class family and was the tenth
child of the family. With seven brothers and four sisters, my grandmother's family was extremely
poor and struggled to support the family. Some of Xians siblings had already passed away when
Xian was born. Xians parents had passed away when she was at a very young age in the Second
Sino-Japanese war, and so, the older siblings had to assume the parental roles and support the
younger siblings. Xian did not have much recollection of her parents, only that they were strict
and serious. All her siblings started working at a young age, which prevented Xian and her
siblings from ever attending school. She started working at the age of 8, and worked various jobs
as a dishwasher, busboy, waitress, and worked in a kitchen. Xian worked at the Tao Tao Ju
restaurant for the longest time until her retirement in 1981.
Yu Shao met Hou Dao Keng, my grandfather, in 1951. They were introduced to each
other by mutual friends, because during that time it was uncommon for a man or woman to find a
husband or wife on their own. Keng and Xian married in 1952 and moved from Foshan to
Guangzhou. Xian had her first child, Hou Wing Pui on March 4, 1954. My grandmother
continued to work at the Tao Tao Ju restaurant in Guangzhou and had another son, Hou Kan Pui,
on December 1, 1959. Xian had her first daughter, Yuyi, on September 15, 1962 and another
daughter four years later on November 20, 1966. Due to the Chinese Cultural Revolution that
started in 1966, Hou Dao Keng was forced to move to a rural village in Qing Yuan, Guandong
until 1970. Xian was forced to raise her large family on her own. She worked all day and night

and was barely home. Her sons started working in order to help support the family, while Yuyi
went to school.
She went about this grueling way of life until her children were fully grown. When she
retired she spent most of her days playing mahjong with her friends and gambling. In 1999, both
Xian and Keng immigrated to America, but was not accustomed to the lifestyle, so they moved
back after six months. In 2002, Xians health deteriorated and her family visited her in
Guangzhou, China. On September 25, 2006, her husband passed away, leaving Xian by herself.
By 2010, Xians health further declined and went through extensive hospital care, but on April 6,
2011, Yu Shao Xian passed away at 80.