Chinese Version
03-11-2021, Thursday

Because of the global pandemic in 2020, I have not visited my father in China since December 2019.

At the beginning of this year, I told my daughter that her grandfather’s birthday is March 12 and her grandfather doesn’t like anything I send back to him.

As my daughter knew that one of her grandfather’s favorite hobby is writing, she said: “Let me select some of grandfather’s articles on his 公众号 (a brand of personal blog hosted by Tencent which is censored) and make a book as a birthday gift for him, just like the book I made for your birthday.”

I was very happy to hear her suggestion, so we started to download my father’s articles from his 公众号 for my daughter to read and select in January,

I curiously asked her: “You could not understand Grandpa’s articles with your current Chinese reading skill, how can you make a book for him?”

My daughter said: “I could use some translation app.”

She selected more than 30 articles out of more than the 150 articles published on her grandfather’s 公众号. She categorized the articles into four sections: Writing (文)、Government (辖)、Labor (工)、and Family (家). She used her grandfather’s birthday 03-12-2021 to date the book. She chose a picture of her grandfather in his youth as the book cover. She titled her grandfather’s first book “Cumulation Over the Time (日积月累)”. She also wished her grandfather good health in order to write more articles this year on the birthday card she wrote for him.

My daughter purposely choose her grandfather’s poem dated 05-03-2019 as the last article in the book. She explained to me: “I think this poem is grandfather’s way to remember my late grandmother.” (my mother passed away on 05-02-2020)
Turning into smoke flying to heaven
Ashes into a box after cremation
7th-day-memorial five times ceremony
Remembering on birthday and death-day
Memories fade over time
Mentioning sometimes would be normal
Later great-grandchildren would ask
Who are the old people in the picture on our wall?

I was so touched by her thoughts: “I am sure your grandfather will be very happy to read his own book.”

My daughter dedicated an entire week to finalize the book: picking a font, designing the book cover, and arranging for publication. She printed out 6 copies of her grandfather’s book, one for me, and rest of the five copies were sent to her grandfather after the Chinese New Year (02-11-2021).

Good things are a long time in coming, the birthday gift to her grandfather was on hold at Chengdu custom since 03-03-2021.

On March 12, 2021, my daughter and I wished my father happy birthday over the phone and chatted with him. My father said to his granddaughter: “The book you made for me is the best gift.”

Though, my father could not hold his own book on his birthday, I took pictures of his book and shared with him over the internet, so my father could see how his own book made by his granddaughter is look like, hope this bring him a virtual joy.

The cover of the book

The cover and the first page of the book:

The four sections

Writing (文)：

Government (辖)：

Labor (工)：

Family (家)：

The last page of the book

Grandfather’s pome remembering late grandmother：

Turning into smoke flying to heaven
Ashes into a box after cremation
7th-day-memorial five times ceremony
Remembering on birthday and death-day
Memories fade over time
Mentioning at times would be normal
Later great-grandchildren would ask
Who are the old people in the picture on our wall?