Eve J. Chung > Quotes

“I finally understood the gendered aspect of free will and fate. Father believed in making his own fortune because he was a man with choices laid out before him. Nai Nai and Mom believed in fate because they generally had to rely on the decisions of others. From my own experiences, I learned that our lives are a mixture of both.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“We cannot put the present on hold because of fears of what might lie ahead.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Girls were lucky to be housed. We were lucky to be raised. We were lucky to be fed.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Mom had opened doors for me, so that I in turn could open them for my daughter.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“the Dragon Boat Festival, a holiday with grim origins. A great patriot, Qu Yuan, drowned himself after his wrongful exile, and his anguished friends threw sticky rice into the river to distract the fish from nibbling on his body. To honor him, Chinese people ate zhongzhi and watched dragon boat races on the anniversary of his death.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Zhong nan qing nu, an idiom that meant “Value men and belittle women,” was embedded in my understanding of our world.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Nai Nai’s words were the shovels that dug our graves. Yei Yei’s agreement sealed our coffins. But ultimately it was Father’s acquiescence that would bury us in darkness.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Di and I received our mooncakes, which were filled with red bean. There was no egg yolk, but we didn’t mind.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Men made the rules in our society, but women often enforced them.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Mr. Han had given Di and me a box of lanterns to fold and distribute, promising mooncake as a reward.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Maybe, at the very least, I could interrupt the inheritance of our own inferiority from generation to generation, and break this damaging cycle.

I came to the epiphany that a story does not need to end with a single person. Sometimes, success is something that happens over the course of generations, something that is built upon life after life, each one opening a path so that those coming after can walk easier, farther.

Mom had opened doors for me, so that I in turn could open them for my daughter.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“When Ming was still in diapers, I had been giving Mom my salary. I had paid for her apartment. I was more than happy to care for her in old age; in fact, I had budgeted for it. It pained me that despite my love and support for her, in her mind it was still her son who made the difference between her servitude and her freedom. Taiwan itself had evolved around her, but she continued to see our world as it had been before World War II— as a world in which men operated, and women were significant only insofar as they could perpetuate this way of life through the birth of heirs.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Posters of Mao Ze-Dong and his premier, Zhou Enlai, were plastered on the walls, and the red flag of the Communist Party hung triumphantly at the entrance and exit.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“In my mind, there is no greater tool for empowering children than good teachers and parents. For my family, the freedom to learn and study has led to a dismantling of sexist traditions, and I hope that my son and daughter will grow up in a more just world as a result.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Silence was not the virtue that we had always been taught it was. In all these years, it had been the enemy of change.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“The Americans had introduced wheat flour through aid programs and charities... Christian charities gave away milk powder and cooking oil to anyone who attended church services and studied the Bible.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“The gift of a stranger can make the difference of a lifetime.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“How many times did Father have to fail before I would learn?”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Neither of them registered her malevolence, and they dismissed her malicious acts as antics, without understanding the extent of their impact.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Peace was slippery, quick inhalations between violent tides. When war came again, we held our breath as it dragged us into its ebb and flow. It swallowed our people. It claimed our homes.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Taiwanese specialties—fresh shrimp cooked with garlic and tomatoes, and pork kidney sautéed with chives.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong

“Being poor made me a worse person, but it had also made me a braver one.”
― Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong