With the bushfire raging across our homeland (Dec 2019), this real story happened to come across me, it first made me burst into laugh, then falling into tears.
A Chinese lady friend of mine lives nearby alone after her Aussie husband passed away 3 years ago, left her a big mansion without child. Neither she has other relatives here. During our catch-up after the New Year, she told me she always avoided to go back to China to visit her Chinese hometown since her late husband had become terminally ill followed by death. “… I have a large extended family in China. When the big family get together, you see everyone has their own side of smaller family made of mother, father, happy adult kids and lovely grand-kids. Every family is prospering… … It makes me extremely sad. I really don’t like that I’m the only one alone in the big gathering.”
But this year prior to Chinese New Year, after the extended family in China talked to her many times, she was finally persuaded that, for this coming Chinese New Year, she would go back to motherland to join the large family’s celebration.
“My sisters and brothers all told me this, – ‘ You should come back to spend Chinese New Year here. The air in Australia is so badly polluted, you need to come back to China and get some fresh air!’ “