Family ties from history remain intact

Dean Raymond Billing, grandson of Arthur W. Billing, an American Methodist missionary who was in China from 1907 to 1948. He was the principal of the Foochow Union High School.

My grandfather was primarily an instructor in animal husbandry, poultry, pigs and cattle. He was the first administrator of the Foochow Union High School. They built the school in the 1920s. It was bombed and burned in 1930s by the Japanese. They usually didn't bomb American buildings if they knew they were not Chinese buildings, but for some reason, they took this one out.

My grandparents were always very old to me. We never talked about anything. They were very reserved. They were extremely religious. They were Methodist, and they were not outgoing. They were really hard-workers.

I learned all kinds of things about China from grandpa. Actually I was really too young to ask questions. All I knew is that my father was born in China, and when I told other Americans, they looked at me, like, you don't look like Chinese.

When I was a child, China and the US were not friends, so we never talked about it much, and I didn't find out about it until I was much older.