My dad was extremely handsome by the standards of movie stars, especially in his army uniform, with big, double-lid eyes, a straight nose and a well-featured mouth, all proportionally laid out on a well-defined, symmetry face. By looking at the pictures, I saw him the exact copy of his biological mother, nothing in common with all his brothers and sisters. That, kind of, made me believe the reason my adoptive grandpa had provided why dad was put for adoption out of all his siblings. But, all the reasons had been irrelevant by long time ago. One of my friends I met in my early work days in China met dad once and later said to me, “I didn’t know you have such a handsome dad.” Many acquaintances had stated, from time to time, that dad should have gone to a movie career instead of joining the army. Definitely, they all had overlooked dad’s language ability. Leaving SuZhou since age of eighteen and never returning to live in his home city again had not helped bit of dad’s speaking standard mandarin. His speaking mandarin would melt in a strong tone of SuZhou dialect. One of my sisters-in-law lived in my parents’ home while visiting me in Beijing. Dad took her to some landmarks and parks in my place when I was unavailable to accompany her. She later told me that she didn’t understand most of what dad had said to her during all the outings and therefore, all she did was to nod and replay with “yes”. I joked, “I should have taught you a little of SuZhou dialect before you came.”
