Qingdao, 1931

It was more than a decade ago that I last visited this old house where my grandparents used to live. The blue door plate writes the address from which I once received LETTERS in the 90s; the red wooden spiral stairs lead home on the second floor; inside, the big family squeezed in the bed as the room was too packed for chairs; the black-and-white family photo is still hanging on the wall, but the old generation in it has long gone and the babies grown up.

Today the coal stove in the room has been changed to an air-conditioner; we no longer write letters on paper; the old pictures have been scanned and saved to the computer.

This house built in 1931 by the Japanese listens to the firecrackers blown up every Chinese new year and it has witnessed the changes upon people over the years. It can be nostalgic and also a reminder of how we used to live.