Cantonese speaking Eurasians in Shanghai – Betwixt and between

A memoir written by Margaret Sun, published 2019.

Read the preview here .. https://www.scribd.com/read/406376623/Betwixt-and-Between-A-Memoir-of-Mo...

... I was born in a Cantonese speaking family in Shanghai, in 1935.

... My mother, also a Cantonese, was an orphan who did not know who her birth parents were… My mother was taken into a Eurasian family with the last name of Hawes.  She was treated better than a maid, but not nearly as well as a member of the family.

... From what I was told by older people, it could’ve branched out from the Eurasian communities of Canton and Hong Kong since nearly all the Eurasians of Shanghai at that particular time were Cantonese speaking...

... Like many Cantonese and English-speaking Eurasians of that generation, Mr. Hawes and his wife were of very Caucasian appearance and many of their children were blue eyed and blonde.

The head of the household was Mr Hawes (1868-1943 ca.) whom we  affectionately called “Ah Gung” (Grandpa). He was a kind old man, short in  stature, and quite deaf. He had a job with the Shanghai Water Works. His  sister, Kate, married a Mr Wood who was a manager of the Works. Mrs Hawes,  also a Eurasian, was a member of the Pomeroy family and she died before I  was born. Mr and Mrs Hawes had three children. A son, James Pomeroy  Hawes, worked for the Standard Oil (Socony) Company until it was liquidated  in the early 1950s, and two daughters, Lily and Violet. 

Surnames ... Johnston, Ward, Ford, Pomeroy, Hawes, Ollerdessen