Greetings, my name is Ming Ching and I am just a boy born in Huzhou, located in the Zhejiang Province during the year of 1912. I am just starting my first year of college Shanghai which is halfway across the country and I have been inspired to report on the livelihood of the big city. Coming from the country moving to the East Coast, I could see the merchants were of great wealth. My Grandparents had been wealthy merchants in the silk industry in Shanghai, and had sent my father out to Huzhou to control the production of silk in a factory. My mother rarely leaves the house unless its for a dinner party with my father as we also host dinner parties once a month. Even though my parents had 4 children, I am the only one left in the house since my older sisters got sent away to get married. All of them have moved into wealthy families in Shanghai so I never get to see them since they are busy tending to the needs of her husband and his parents. However, I did have a good relationship with my sister who was only 2 years older than me. I didn’t really get to form a relationship with my older sisters who were 6 and 7 years older than me as they got sent off when they were just 14 years old.
Coming from the background that I did, I was in a great position to set my life up for success following in the family business. The Taiping rebellion was a very influential part of my families history and it is part of the reason why my father moved to Huzhou. My father had needed a son to preserve his family name so even though he treated my sisters fairly, he was more concerned about my well being. He sent me to the best school in the area where I was a good student, but not quite the top of the class. The first few years of my school I had learned to love reading and writing. Though I lived a nice life in a village, I always wanted to travel to the big cities and report on the life there. I aspire to interview and report on citizens of different lifestyles, from business owners to factory workers. With my families history I feel as though I will be able to get an inside look at how wealthy people think and work to create the most wealth as possible as well as getting the perspective of the poor workers within the city.