Before the worst of Mr. A’s illness hit (and I should mention he is still sick so it is likely he has a virus or maybe giardia or something similar), we had a lovely day visiting with his Mom’s extended family. She has a LOT of family.
MIL grew up as one of 6 sisters and 5 brothers (I think), from two wives (consecutive, I think/hope). Her mother was the second wife, but she was somewhat close to some of her half siblings who were close to her age.
When we were in Taipei, we visited with one half brother who was totally awesome. He was like a little Chinese leprechaun. He was a spritely, smiley guy who is now semi-retired. I don’t remember what his original job was, I think some kind of factory management or something, but now he works part time giving Chinese reflexology massages. He also wore a lovely purple neckband and wristbands that he claimed had special properties because they were ionized. He kept saying “I know it works, because Look at me! I am 70 years old, but I look 50!” (No, he really didn’t!)
The rest of the extended family who could make it came to a family banquet in Taichung on saturday. MIL and Ed/Steve were there as were maybe 5 of her siblings. Some of them were quite old. Ooooold, old. It was the first time Mr. A had been to Taiwan with his mom, so it was the first time he met many of them. There was a lot of toasting and a good amount of drinking for lunch with a bunch of old people. Some of their children and grandchildren also attended. Despite the language barrier (mine and somewhat Mr. A’s because they spoke a lot of Taiwanese instead of mandarin), it was warm and welcoming.
The meal took a LONG time though. According to M’s calculations, over 2 hours from when we sat down until the finished bringing us food. The length of the meal prompted a spontaneous outburst of Chinese from M who said “Taiwanren e hen duo le!” (Taiwanese people eat a LOT!)
After that, we went with MIL and her younger brother to visit Mr. A’s maternal grandmother’s resting place. I don’t know what else to call it. It is a big building where they keep the remains of dead people and where you can go to pay your respects. You don’t actually pay respects at the actual remains, though. They call up a picture of the dead person and you do your ancestor worship in front of a TV screen.
It caused a bit of a bruhaha that Mr. A was insisting on visiting his maternal grandmother, because he is only supposed to worship his paternal side. There was much discussion with his uncle (who was the rightful heir, I guess) about whether or not it was inappropriate and if Mr. A was trying to steal extra blessings from his Amah that rightfully belonged to the uncle. After much insisting by Mr. A, eventually, the uncle agreed to take us.
We had to take a separate cab and or cab driver accidentally took us to the wrong mausoleum. Coincidentally, the wrong one was actually the one where Mr. A’s paternal ancestors are located. We finally figured it out and got to the right place where MIL, uncle and aunty showed us how to use a credit card to pull up the correct file. Then we all lit incense and prayed for good fortune and health (and I suspect from Mr. A, wealth).
It was a completely pleasant day. Color me surprised.
