Double Happiness: The Pu Family Origin Story

Am I too early for Throwback Thursday?

One of the purposes of this blog is to encourage my TV writing. Jotting down vignettes gives me a great opportunity to workshop new material in real time.

One of my biggest passion projects is the warm family sitcom that tells the story of my Chinese scientist father, my Cotillion Queen mother and their 3 mixed-up/mixed-race kids. I’m the middle; my older sister Yee is a doctor in Texas; little viral Quin Woodward Pu works in PR in DC. This script was the first project I finished immediately after leaving Variety, and it’s very close to my heart. Does this story sound interesting to you? Would you like to bring this modern-day multi-camera/multi-culti “chop suey” comedy to life, in any capacity? Please email me!

With that in mind, I recently stumbled upon this photo that documents where it all began. Or at least, it’s an early moment in the Pu family origin story. Regrettably, I know of no photos from the Harvard interdisciplinary mixer in which my lawyer mother and doctor father first clapped eyes on each other. Nor any of their first date, in which my dad wooed my mom with a cup of impromptu sorbet concocted using dry ice from his cancer research lab.

4 (1)

To quote Cher Horowitz (as I inevitably do): Wasn’t my mom a total Betty? Thankfully, she hasn’t been claimed by a freak accident during a routine liposuction (dark!). This is a photo of my dad’s dad (my Gong Gong) toasting the newlyweds. And my mom’s recollection of it:

Can’t remember anything about the toast. Gong Gong’s main contribution (aside from providing the bridegroom) were his hand-typed fortunes for the fortune cookies. It was truly a labor of love, perhaps a tad underappreciated. Gong Gong was so learned that the fortunes were long and literary, tending to be so abstruse, especially in his translation (he had been a Chinese-Russian translator at the UN) that they could have been written by Camus. Their unfurling gave somewhat the impression, always welcome at a wedding reception, of tapeworms.

6 (1)

3 comments to “Double Happiness: The Pu Family Origin Story”
  1. Pingback: Coast-to-Coast Christmas | Violet On Orange

  2. Pingback: Adventures in Seeking Asian Cuisine: Our Covered-Up Trip to Vietnam | Violet On Orange

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit exceeded. Please complete the captcha once again.