1/ I wanted to share a story about something kind of wonderful that happened yesterday. Backstory: I grew up in Oakland, Calif., not knowing really anything about my mother's family -- she was an only child (born in NYC) & my grandparents died before I was born. 2/ I moved to Beijing in 2014 to work as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. At the time all I knew dimly was that my great-grandmother was supposedly from here & had apparently lived in a traditional courtyard home. Not much to go on.