Editor's note: 

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For many overseas Chinese like myself, coming to China is a return to our ancestral roots.

My mother's side of the family originated from Xiamen, China. 

During World War II, my grandfather "Ah Gong," and his brother attempted to flee to Nanyang on a boat. Fate had it that his taller, elder brother was turned away and remained in Xiamen, while my Ah Gong sailed to Singapore. 

It’s fascinating how the choices and circumstances of our ancestors intricately link and shape the paths we walk today. 

Chris Cai, a high school senior, shares his remarkable journey of uncovering his family history from an old painting in his attic.

Wishing you and your family a warm reunion this Mid-Autumn Festival.‍‍

When you look at an artifact in a museum, what do you see? 

I see more than just an artifact. 

For me, the glass display is like a window to the past, capturing the lived experiences of people hundreds and thousands of years ago. 

Of course, this was not how I saw relics in museums when I was younger. 

My story with artifacts began two summers ago, in sun-scorched California.

I was first exposed to provenance research during a summer camp at Stanford University where we investigated African relics. 

Provenance research is the study of examining where artifacts come from and their journey to where they are now. 

It involves tracing where the artifacts were made and who the successive owners were. 

I was fascinated.

It was like being a detective, sweeping away the dust of time to expose a lost history. 

This flame of passion continued burning even when I returned to Shanghai, and when I heard that my family owned an artifact passed down from generation, I was thrilled. 

It was an old painting that had been sitting in my attic. 

There was no better opportunity for me to throw my knowledge into action.

I began my journey by interviewing my grandmother. 

Though she had few answers, her eyes lit up with curiosity as nostalgia filled her voice. 

It was like putting together a puzzle without knowing what the final picture was. 

My only other hints were the inscriptions on the side of the scroll: a signature and a description. 

After multiple attempts at trying to identify what the Chinese characters were, I finally found a match of an artist in history. 

The artist of the painting is Tang Lu Ming (汤禄名), a famous artist active in the late Qing Dynasty. 

I had a difficult time recognizing his name because he signed this painting with his courtesy name, Le Min (乐民). 

He was known for his work on portraits of women in nature, known as “Shi Nu Tu” (仕女图), and other of Tang’s paintings are housed at The Palace Museum in Beijing. 

After confirming this detail with authenticators at the art institution Duo Yun Xuan (朵云轩), I found that the painting’s title is “Singing to the Autumn Moon,” created in 1860.

Having figured out who the artist was, I just needed to figure out who owned this painting originally. 

I figured that this was the easy part of the research. 

After all, it is my family’s history that I’m looking into. 

Ironically, the more I researched, the more I realized how much I didn’t know about my family’s past. 

Think about it. 

How many of us know the names of all our great-grandparents, or great-great grandparents? 

I contacted all the family relatives I knew, but I was stuck in place.

A month later, I received exciting news: a relative living in America found a family tree and has digitalized it. 

It dates back to over 200 years! 

Seeing the names of relatives, many of whom I have never seen before, sprawling across the page, I could only marvel at all this history that would have been buried if not for this painting sitting in my attic. 

On the side of the scroll, it notes that the painting was gifted from Mr. Zhi Lu (厔庐先生) to Xue Shao Quan (薛少泉), my great-great-grandfather, in 1905. 

Since then, this painting has been passed down to the daughter of the family, all the way down to my mother. 

The puzzle was finally complete.

Serendipity reveals the beauty in life, and my journey in examining my family history can be described exactly as that. 

As I studied my family tree, I identified something astounding. 

At the top of the tree was the name Tan Shao Guang (谭绍光). 

I had seen that name. 

His name is on the walls of the Suzhou Museum! 

With some more digging, the truth floated to the surface: Tan Shao Guang was one of the generals during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom era and was granted the Humble Administrator’s Garden (拙政园) as his residence. 

This garden is the modern-day Suzhou Museum!

As I explained my findings to my parents and grandparents, their expressions shifted from nostalgia to surprise. 

The stories shared with my family filled the room with laughter and warmth. 

It connected us across generations! 

This is our own story that we had never heard before, an emotional reunion with our past.

My journey started with a continuation of my passion for artifacts, but before I knew it, I was whisked away on an adventure of discovering family heritage. 

As I wove together the threads of my family history, I was drawn to a community across generations. 

This painting in the attic led me to a new self-discovery and a bond that connected me to my roots. 

An artifact may be just an object to some people, but for others, it carries the weight of their lived experiences. 

Through tracing the history of one painting alone, I was able to take a peek at the stories of people from hundreds of years ago. 

History is a collection of stories of people. 

In my opinion, people only pass away when they are forgotten. 

Artifacts serve as evidence that unique individuals have lived meaningful lives and studying artifacts validates their experiences. 

Perhaps in the future, when our generation has passed away, our artifacts will be our drift bottles carrying our stories, floating in the ocean of history.