My Family History: the Past and the Present

ABSTRACT

The micro, meso, and macro levels of family history have been examined in qualitative and quantitative research in diverse ways. This article mainly examines a micro-level family history, specifically my early experience, in a narrative, retrospective and reflective manner. As the eldest son of my family, I review and (re)write my family stories after my ancestors’ land was lost. This research asserts that we are in the endless process of creating family history that forms the foundation of our understanding of the world, and that from this starting point, we continuously create and recreate ourselves. We write about our family history to better understand the past and to live well at present and contribute to the process of knowledge making for the well-being of the human species.

KEYWORDS:

• Family history
• lived experience
• micro history
• life writing

Acknowledgements

I thank the double-blind reviewers and the editorial team of Life Writing, especially Tanya Evans and Marian Lorrison, for their careful guidance and support! Words cannot express my gratitude to them and all the kind-hearted and simple scholars who have helped me on my way towards a better existence. Parts of the article are from my dissertation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 According to the law, Yuan’s family members above 16 years old should be killed as well; but the emperor didn’t opt to do that (Wang 1982).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Botao Wu

Botao Wu received his doctoral degree in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has published traditional academic articles and poems in North America and Asia. Currently, he is in search of a home in a non-religious and apolitical way.