Chun Zheng has lived through a house fire, a flood and an earthquake. None of that, she says, compares to sending her infant daughter and son abroad to live with her extended family.
“It’s the worst hardship I’ve ever had to bear,” says the 42-year-old hotel housekeeper, speaking in Mandarin.
Both of her children — 7-year-old Joyce and 5-year-old Jay — were born in Boston. But for the first years of their lives, they stayed with relatives in Fujian, a southeastern province of China. Joyce spent more than four years with her aunt, whom she still calls “ma.” (She calls Chun Zheng “mommy.”)
At the time, Chun Zheng and her husband were living in a cramped room in Boston’s Chinatown, sharing a kitchen and bathroom with strangers. She says they worked long hours at restaurants to save enough money to eventually bring their kids home. To read more from HANSI LO WANG, click here.