I’ve seen this picture a dozen times without paying much attention to it. I’d always thought it was a village gate in TOI SHAN that had some relevance to me but didn’t really know how. It was only later I learned my dad sponsored the construction of this gate.
My dad never talked about it and I never got a sense of his continued connections to our ancestral village—the village where he was born along with his older brother, parents, and uncles. I guess I took it for granted since all my immediate family members on my dad’s side either ended up in NYC or were born in the US.
I look forward to the day I get to see this gate in person. ■
