Tuesday, March 10, 2015

WDYTYA Season Premier -- Julie Chen



Sunday brought with it the season premier of Who Do You Think You Are.  This weeks episode we followed Julie Chen as she traced the ancestry of her mother.  I am a fan of Julie Chen and was very eager to watch this episode and to see her personal journey into her families historical past.


Julie began her search by looking into the past of her maternal grandfather who died before she was born and who she new very little about.  The first stop on her journey was to Singapore where she new her grandfather had died.  From there she was able to learn the name of the village in China where her grandfather had been born.  What intrigued her most was learning from her grandfathers obituary that he had had an "improper childhood."  She wanted to find out more to explain this statement.

She traveled to his hometown village in China where she not only discovered the meaning behind him having an "improper childhood" but also learned that her great grandfather had been appointed as director of education by the Emperor in the Qing Dynasty!  She was able to visit a school her grandfather had founded and was able to meet a distant cousin who took her to visit the sacred burial sight of her great grandfather.

Overall I found this episode very enjoyable!  Julie's display of genuine emotion was refreshing.  My only disappointment was she didn't learn more about other generations of this family line.