Sixth Jade: A Biographical Journey of Triumph

By Les Gee

From the author of the engaging Amazon five-star biography One Small Pebble . . . A Thousand Ripples.

Sin Wong was born into what should have been a life of ease, a life of abundance in 1920s southern China.

An arranged marriage to a poor farm boy named Suey Fong changed everything. Pregnant, she saw him off to pursue prospe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Les Gee
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798989261116

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Text copyright © 2023 by Les Gee.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN: 979-8-9892611-0-9

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9892611-1-6

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Back cover photo by Hilary Brody

Produced by Dean Burrell

Design by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

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This book is dedicated to my wife, Lila, who has stood alongside me for forty-eight years, unconditionally believing in me in all my endeavors.

Acknowledgments

This book is the culmination of a four-year endeavor and would not have been possible without the many of you who were there with support, encouragement, and inspiration. I will be forever indebted to all of you.

Too many to list, but most memorably:

Lila, my wife, my constant cheerleader and muse.

Bryce and Brent, our sons, along with their respective wives, Jennifer and Lena, who are my inspiration to preserve story for posterity.

Dean Burrell, my chief editor, who quarterbacked my first book so perfectly that I entrust him again.

Rachel Smith, my writing coach from The History Quill of Essex, England, who oversaw my sweat and tears behind this book.

All the staff and members of The History Quill, whose perspicacious critiquing helped my manuscript evolve.

My team of fourteen beta readers, whose invaluable feedback gave me much needed objective insight into perfecting my manuscript.

All my many friends who encouraged and cheered me on.

Voyaging through life, I wish not so much for an always tranquil sea as much as I wish for the strength, the courage, and the fortitude to prevail when the sea is capricious and treacherous.

Preface

This book had its genesis upon completion of my biography One Small Pebble . . . A Thousand Ripples which chronicled my father’s rags to riches story. From war-torn, impoverished 1930’s southern China, Allan Suey Fong Gee came to America in 1939 having married my mother in 1937. World War II and other complications kept them in opposite hemispheres for seven years. Finally reunited, they came to America in 1947 and built success and abundance in Oakland, California beyond recognition from their humble beginnings. The ultimate success could not have happened but for the teamwork between the two of them. Thus, I felt my mother’s story needed to be told through this parallel book. While I had the privilege of spending much time with my father in his final years, allowing me to make Pebble biographical, I had to draw from family anecdotes and my own memory to tell my mother’s story as an historical novel. Despite the fictional nature of this story, I strived to preserve fidelity of character so that Sin Wong would say and do what she would likely have said and done in real life. Nevertheless, the historical backdrop and many of the events are factual.

We have all endured trials in our lives, some more traumatic than others. And we have all relished childhood pleasures. All these life experiences leave indelible memories that become part of our adult personae.

For those who have witnessed the ravages of war, it is the ultimate test of human resolve and resilience. Many have been thrust into the irrecoverable dark abyss of terminal despair. They have been extinguished of their spirit and robbed of all hope, to never smile again. Some of the memories pervade in what in my mother’s time was called shell shock, later recognized as PTSD.

But in the end, there will be the survivor and ultimate victor, the phoenix who rises with a newly hardened and indomitable strength. This is the story of the Holocaust survivors. This is the story of the Vietnamese boat people after the fall of Saigon. This is the story of the Chinese who suffered the savagery of the Japanese soldiers during World War II. This is the story of my mother.

On Sin’s wedding day, as Hirohito’s Japanese Imperial Army prepared to invade southern China, Sin’s mother bequeathed her a sacred token. Will this precious gift remain in her possession to confer upon her its centuries-old legendary powers of protection from harm? Does such a talisman really possess the divine power to bring good?

My mother’s odyssey begins in the Foo Shan village of Canton, China.

Author’s Note

In my endeavor for authenticity, I have used many Romanized forms of Cantonese vocabulary. A glossary is provided at the end of this book.

1

Foo Shan village, 1926. Sin Wong roamed the entire house shouting, Ah Goh-Goh, I’m coming to find you! I’ll find you yet! Ah Goh-Goh! Ah Goh-Goh! Sin hadn’t seen her goh-goh for several days. She knew not to look for him in the mornings as her older brother would have gone off to school. But by afternoon, when he didn’t return from school, she thought he was already playing their frequent hide-and-seek game, he being it and not telling her.

When the four-year-old complained to her mother that Goh-Goh wouldn’t come out of hiding, Sin couldn’t understand why her mother would break into tears and with a quivering voice reply, Your goh-goh is not home. Now go outside and play.

Sin sauntered out to the large courtyard to aimlessly kick a rubber ball around or stack her stone pile. She knew not to touch the ivory blocks. Those perfectly squared cubes with various animals and Chinese characters carved into the sides were only for Goh-Goh. Her mother had admonished her many times that ivory was only for boys to play with. Thus, she would have to be clever and discerning in stacking the randomly irregular pieces of rock to create a sturdy structure. Then she would place her stuffed dog into the cushioned seat of the miniature rickshaw her father had had his workers at the furniture factory build out of cane remnants and a pair of tiny spoked wooden wheels. She would draw it around the courtyard noticing the ker-thump ker-thump from the eccentricity of the wheels against the uneven marble floor. It wouldn’t have made that noise had the weight of Goh-Goh been in the seat instead of her worn and floppy stuffed animal. One time both parents gave them a severe scolding for switching places. Ah Sin, you are not to be the passenger! Your brother is not a coolie!

By dusk, when she heard the rumble and creak of real rickshaw wheels outside, and then the thud of the two enormous rosewood entrance doors, she made an eager dash, hoping to greet her goh-goh. Alas, she was disappointed that it was merely her father returning from his factory. He was more direct than her mother in responding to her constant querying. Your goh-goh is gone. He’s not coming back. Do not ask anymore!

This went on several days until she eventually came to an expectation that she would never see her daily playmate again. She hated being chased down, tackled and then tickled to tears by him. But now she was beginning to miss it. Now she joined her mother crying in the afternoons when Goh-Goh was supposed to return from school.

Go wash your face before Ba-Ba comes home. He will be angry to see that we’ve both been crying.

For days, the impressions of the funeral spontaneously haunted and confused her incipient mind. She remembered being frightened amid a throng of the village neighbors trudging to a constant droning of wailing cries all around, especially from her mother who gripped her hand so tightly her fingers ached. Everyone was dressed in white which she was not used to seeing. The procession serpentined through the village to a site where a bonfire was swirling and crackling. People placed food around it. They threw colored slips of paper into the fire. Her face burned from the fire. The smoke from the accompanying incense seared the inside of her tender sinuses. She initially didn’t comprehend what was in that wooden box that was lowered into the ground and buried over with dirt. But she did wonder if it had anything to do with Goh-Goh not coming back.

Although her parents were reluctant to speak of death, she overheard the villagers. Then she understood. Then she cried herself to sleep every night for months.

One morning, the usual neighboring rooster in the distance again announced sunrise. A warming shaft of sunlight pierced through the courtyard into her room and illuminated her ragged stuffed dog she had tightly enfolded in her arms through her entire sleep. The sunlight warmed and comforted her as did the stuffed dog that had become her nightly salve and her daily surrogate companion. Its glass eyes sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight despite its tattered covering and a tail that was about to detach.

There were the familiar morning commotions outside. Farmers wheeling squeaky carts, perhaps full of produce bound for market. Dogs barking sharply. Children, probably on their way to school, laughing and shouting. Neighbors’ voices perhaps exchanging gossip. Chirping swallows. The stubborn rooster still hadn’t stopped crowing. But this time Sin heard a new sound within their home. She didn’t recognize the high-pitched bleating.

2

Curiosity lured her out of bed. She was glad to see her mother smiling, a sight she hadn’t seen in some time. Her mother was clutching a bundle of tattered material, the source of the new sound, the bleating of an infant. The bundle wriggled and a tiny fist punched into the air. Miniature fingers opened and waved. Sin thought to herself, That hand is tinier than mine. And it’s waving at me! She tiptoed while her mother leaned down to show her. Indeed, it was a baby, wriggling, with a bright rosy face and a shiny bald head. Squinting its eyes, the bleating continued.

This is your new brother, See Chew. You’re five now and you can help take care of him. He will grow up and be your new playmate. Run and get me a fresh blanket. They didn’t even bring him in a proper blanket.

Sin’s father often spoke with disappointment at the lack of an heir to the business after the passing of their son. Unable to conceive anymore, there was no choice for Sin’s mother but to adopt. It was China. It would have been an absurdity for Sin, or any woman for that matter, to have any involvement, even peripherally, in her father’s business, let alone inherit it. A wealthy business family cannot properly be without a son, her father would declare.

Sin was excited at the thought of having a new brother, someone who could fill the void as her daily companion and playmate. Whatever her mother requested of her, Sin would eagerly comply. Get me another silk blanket. He hasn’t napped enough. Go pat him back to sleep. Sing your song to him. Teach him to clap hands.

And Sin would laugh with him whenever he responded. But she was impatient. When can he play with me? She was persistent with this question although she knew the response would predictably be Someday, Ah Nui. Some day.

Finally, by the time Sin was six, See Chew was able to walk with Sin holding him up. Then he began walking on his own. Then they could run together. Not long after, Sin was taught the same subordinate role she had been taught with her older brother. Although only See Chew was allowed to play with the ivory, Sin beamed with pride when she could take her irregular stones and somehow configure them into a sturdy structure as high as her brother could with perfectly shaped cubes. And she was glad that See Chew was smaller and an easier passenger to tow around in the toy rickshaw.

Although Ma-Ma’s expectations hadn’t changed, the explanation differed. What used to be Goh-Goh is older than you so you must respect him was replaced with See Chew is younger than you so you must protect him. At seven years old, she knew only to comply.

The years lapsed as Goh-Goh’s absence faded and she found her new playmate in See Chew. By the time she was ten, she realized the advantage in her seniority. See Chew was more yielding as a sibling.

One afternoon, Sin noticed a pair of new cloth shoes on a table. They were of a bright red cotton with neatly stitched-in brown leather soles. They did seem a bit small, Sin observed. Perhaps her mother hadn’t realized her feet had grown some, she thought to herself. Nevertheless, she was giddy with anticipation. She took in an enjoyable sniff of the fresh factory smell. She even thought to take them from the table and try them on but knew better that she could face punishment from a few whacks of the handle of Ma-Ma’s feather duster, a punishment her legs were too familiar with.

That night she could hardly fall asleep, so thrilled was she at the thought that she could finally have brand new shoes, a luxury only her older brother had had. She always ended up with his battered and outgrown shoes. She was now ten and her father had told her that that was when she would get her own new shoes.

Her mother had to awaken her from her fitful night of anticipated joy. Today your little brother will be starting school. We must show him how to walk there.

She dressed herself quickly but without her old shoes and rushed out to the foyer to meet her mother and brother. Her mother shrieked, Your shoes! Where are your shoes? We’re going outside and you have no shoes, silly girl! Sin Wong’s heart sank in an instant as she caught a glimpse of her brother’s red-clad feet, confirming her fleeting thought that those were not to be her shoes. She had dismissed many such moments of disappointment. Yet she persevered with the thought, One day it will be different.

Along the way to her adopted brother’s school, Sin asked the same question she’d asked many times before, each time hoping that she would get a different answer. Ah Ma-Ma, can I go to school one day?

Ah Nui, my mouth is dry from explaining to you every time you ask. You do not need to go to school. School is for boys who will be making a living. I have told you before. The geomancer of Kee Hing Lee village has picked out a boy for you already and this boy will marry you when he finishes school. You will be fifteen by then and you will be ready to join his family. School would be a waste of time for you. You must learn to cook and care for your husband and his family.

But Sin never stopped asking. Her curiosity had been aroused when Goh-Goh was still alive. He would come home from school and explain to her the history of the Chinese people. He would tell her about odd-looking yellow-haired people in a strange land on the other side of the ocean. He would tell her about the moon and the sun, that they were the same moon and sun no matter where you were in the world. He even showed her how to make strokes with a calligraphy brush with his ink block.

Those were the lessons she loved most. She kept an ink block and some of Goh-Goh’s old practice books hidden in her room. When Ma-Ma was not watching, she would take the brush and trace over the characters for bowl and ox and the numbers from one to ten.

3

Summers and winters elapsed, and the day that Mahng Ngahn Moo, the blind geomancer, had ordained for the wedding arrived. She had also declared that 1937, being the year of the ox, would be a good year to marry for compatibility.

A chorus of chirping swallows outside ushered in the much-anticipated day. But their sweet exchanges and the cloudless deep blue skies did not calm the young bride’s angst. This was the day Sin would leave the familiarity of her home permanently. This would be the day she would in an instant become a member of an altogether new household. A conundrum of fragmented thoughts coursed through her head. What is Suey Fong like? Will he like me? Will his mother like me? What will it be like living on a rice farm? I can never come back home again. Never to see Ma-Ma and Ba-Ba again. Never to see See Chew again. This is my last time with Ma-Ma. My last time. Her eyes glistened and few teardrops trickled down her cheeks as her mother brushed her hair.

Ah Nui, I’m trying to not hurt you, but you have so many tangles in your hair.

It’s not my hair. Sin looked in the mirror and saw the tears sparkle on her cheeks.

Then no need to be scared, silly girl. This is a happy day for you. The sedan is already here and Ba-Ba is waiting to see you into it. He is happy for you too. Her mother paused a long moment. You know your father will always be a stern man. I know he has never told you, but he has told me many times that he is happy about you.

Ba-Ba has never been happy about me. See how much he always praises See Chew? He was also kind to Goh-Goh. You think I was too young to remember? I remember. But Ba-Ba talks to me only when he’s scolding me. I can never please him.

Ba-Ba is stern with you only because he wants you to be proper. Sin knew it was futile to point out that the sons had been treated differently.

Ah Ma-Ma, are you pleased with me? She did not dare question her mother’s preferential treatment of See Chew. Her mother had many times lectured her on her responsibility to take care of her younger brother. Either her mother didn’t hear her or she had deliberately ignored the question, so Sin persisted, Ah Ma-Ma, are you pleased with me?

"Silly girl, you have been a good daughter. You have taken care of your brother and will now be a good, devoted wife. And one day you will be a good mother by bearing many sons. Suey Fong is not rich. But the geomancer promised that he is a good match and will make your life good. Remember, Mahng Ngahn Moo is blind. She can see things no one else can. I believe her. Your father needed persuading to allow these mismatched doors, but in the end he agreed.

But, Ah Sin Nui, she could be wrong. These six pieces of jade will assure you that you will never go hungry. Sin’s mother placed two teardrop jades and three jade Kuan Yin into a pocket sewn into Sin’s bolero for that purpose.

Her mother then produced a large round disc suspended from a gold chain. This one that I am putting around your neck would be the very last one you should give up if you ever need. It is meant to stay with you to give you good health and good fortune. And it will also give you protection from harm. There’s a war coming, and I want you to be safe.

Ah Ma-Ma, I promise I will never need to sell any of these, especially this one. I promise. Sin nodded her head in assent although she knew of the uncertainty of her future.

Still fraught with much apprehension, but with no uncertainty, she understood the finality of her departure from her childhood home, uprooted from and abandoning all vestiges of familiarity. She was now to become a member of an entirely new family.

Outside the entry of the home, her father and two coolies waited for Sin. Both Sin and her mother stood inside facing each other, holding hands. Her mother stared admiringly at her daughter, having spent most of the morning making up and dressing her. Underneath the traditional red wedding tiara, Sin’s hair was coiffed into a neat bun, since traditionally a bride’s hair may not make contact with her shoulders. Atop her cheong-sam (a fitted long dress usually of silk) richly embroidered with butterflies, she wore a wedding bolero, a short jacket made heavy by brilliantly colorful glass beads and sequins. Butterflies in China symbolize young capricious love. The finishing touch was the jade pendant suspended from its robust gold chain around her neck.

The once light trickle of tears now streamed prolifically down both of their faces, dripping off their chins.

Ah Sin Nui, you be an obedient wife. I wish you many baby boys. This will honor your father, your grandfather and all who came before you. And remember what I had told you about your wifely duty.

Sin, voice quivering, could hardly manage her words. Ah Ma-Ma. Nay fong sum; do not worry. You have taught me well. And I will always remember.

You must go now. Their hands separated. They each dabbed their own eyes with their anticipating handkerchiefs. They embraced for a long moment.

Sin turned and ceremoniously stepped outside where the coolies lifted her onto the plush cushion seat inside the sedan. One of the four coolies gave a command and the sedan lifted off the ground.

Her father, who had been waiting outside, leaned into the sedan and spoke. Do not dishonor our family. Do not dishonor our people. Sin acknowledged with a mere nod.

Sin looked beyond him to see if Ma-Ma was still there. She was. And their eyes connected fixedly as the coolies began the procession to Kee Hing Lee village. See Chew appeared behind Ma-Ma peering out as if he were hiding. Mother and daughter stared at each other fixedly until Sin’s former home became a small dot vanishing in the distance through shimmery tears. She had not the slightest inkling of what awaited on the other side of the hill.

4

The red glass bead tassels of the wedding tiara sparkled as they swung back and forth just inches from the fifteen-year-old’s eyes as the sedan chair jostled her about. She could hear the huffing and puffing of the coolies outside as they carried the sedan to its final destination in the rice-farming village of Kee Hing Lee. She knew they had arrived as the celebratory gongs rang out and the deafening string of celebratory firecrackers cracked rat-a-tat and the sedan was set down with a gentle thud. The sting of spent gunpowder from the firecrackers slightly irritated Sin’s sinuses as the sedan’s curtain was pulled open.

Two of the coolies who had carried the sedan lifted her out and placed her piggy-back onto a robust woman who did this as her job in the village. Sin was told that a bride must not set foot on the ground before the ceremony.

Sin looked back to admire a phoenix, poised mid-air, embroidered onto the sedan’s red silk curtain in intricate details of shimmery gold thread. That creature looks fearsome yet graceful, she thought to herself. I wonder what it would be like to be a phoenix. So free. So powerful. She closed her eyes and, being off her feet, imagined herself as that phoenix dizzily floating and then soaring as chirping sparrows chattered about.

As they continued down a narrow unpaved alley festooned on each side with red posters imprinted with gold characters, Sin’s right hand went to her neckline to reassure herself that the one special pendant her mother had placed around her neck was still there. Her fingers focused on the large round piece as she caressed the surface, smooth but for the many intricate ridges. This tactile activity somewhat assuaged her nervousness.

But the apprehensions were still there. What kind of man was Suey Fong? She knew he was without a father or any siblings, and she would thus have the responsibility of caring only for him, his mother and their apparently modest homestead. She was told Suey Fong was hard-working, that he was kind and that he did extremely well in school. She had to put her trust in the judgment of the village geomancer. Everyone else did.

That he was fatherless gave her some odd sense of consolation. Her relationship with her own father had been nothing short of quarrelsome. Her father was doctrinaire and intolerant of the slightest straying from his