A história de Joan

Joan com 16 anos em Macau, após a segunda guerra

(...) My father, Hans, decided to stay on in Shanghai, and offer his services as an experienced businessman to the new regime. Eurasians were NOT welcomed by the new regime. Dad would be expelled and our property confiscated. My mother anticipated this, reverted to her original British nationality, included me, and took off for Hongkong, literally on the last Pan Am plane. We stayed at first for a year with friends in their decaying colonial  mansion in Macao.   

All we had was a suitcase each. The seats had been taken out of the plane, and the passengers huddled on the floor, crowded shoulder to shoulder, holding onto their meager belongings.

The Harveys had all been interned as British subjects. They were in poor health at first and almost destitute and disoriented. In later years, their British citizenship would also be rescinded, but by then, they had managed to hopscotch their way to new countries and new homes.(...)

Joan, a narradora desta história, está na fotografia tirada da rua da Boa Vista com a Praia Grande ao fundo, no que parece ser o terraço do hotel Bela Vista que serviu de abrigo a milhares de refugiados da China e Hong Kong entre 1939 e 1945. 

O autor do texto é Joan Klyin, o filho de Joan que resolveu recuperar as memórias dos anos em que juntamente com os pais viveu em Shangai no início do século XX. Durante a ocupação japonesa da cidade - entre 1942 e 1945 - Joan Klyin tinha cerca de 10 anos.