Jiazhai: In Search of My Mother's Childhood House
Abstract:
The concept of home has become increasingly complex and challenging to defi ne in modern times, as traditional notions of home are being challenged by diverse family structures, globalization and mobility, economic instability, social and political dynamics, and subjective interpretations of home.
This thesis, Jiazhai (In Chinese, 鈥淛ia鈥 stands for home, while 鈥淶hai鈥 means house), explores the idea of home and settlement through a collection of recently discovered family stories from my mother鈥檚 side in Xiamen, China. Through online interviews with my family members, I asked my mother and my grandmother to recall and draw their childhood memories of home. Based on their stories and drawings, I tried to reconstruct the untold family history, family tree, and the old family house in Kulangsu (historically an international settlement in the early 20th century), which belonged to an unknown family member of mine - my great-grandfather, a Filipino overseas Chinese.
In addition, the thesis documents how the concept of home was experienced and transformed during diff erent periods, including premodern China in the 1930s, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, and the Chinese economic reform in the 1980s. Through these transformations, it records the journey of my family鈥檚 settlement that ultimately led to our current home in Xiamen. While the thesis recollects and reorganizes my family鈥檚 journey of placements, it aims to unfold how the idea of home, family, and settlement transformed over the past century in China.
The
examining
committee
is
as
follows:
Supervisor:
Robert
Jan
van
Pelt
Committee
member:
Val
Rynnimeri
Internal-external
reader:
Linda
Zhang
External:聽Manli
Ho
The
defence
examination
will
take
place:
Tuesday,
May聽2,
2023,
1:00
p.m.
This
will
be
taking
place
in
person
in
ARC
2026.
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.