Mei Mei

2025

23.5 in x 28.5 in

Wei Wei was left with extended relatives in Changzhou, China, at the age of two. As human collateral during the early rise of Mao Zedong’s Communist China, this sacrifice allowed Wei Wei’s parents and older sister to quietly defect to Hong Kong and later immigrate to the United States.

Believing she was an orphan for most of her thirty years in China, Wei Wei survived famine, forced labor, and indoctrination as Mao’s Sent Down Youth during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Keeping contact through letters, Wei Wei’s older sister finally succeeded in sponsoring her to move the US in 1982. Becoming Mei Mei, or “little sister” in Chinese, Wei Wei started a new life in the US with her four sisters and a brother.

Mei Mei lived another forty years in the US, raising a family of her own and remaining an eternal optimist despite the darkness she experienced.

Her children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews honor her through this piece, in which Mei Mei looks eternally hopeful for the future.

words by: Kelly and Jenny Liu