The persecuted journalist who fled Mao’s China for Hong Kong and the granddaughter out to tell family’s story in a graphic novel
Artist Tessa Hulls visits Hong Kong and Suzhou to learn about the remarkable life of grandmother she grew up with in California, and finds tracing her roots helps her bond with her own mother
Artist Tessa Hulls is working on her biggest project yet: a graphic novel that begins amid the chaos of Shanghai following the 1949 communist takeover. The main character in the story’s first section is a persecuted journalist and single mother, who eventually flees China with her young daughter for a new life in Hong Kong, and then the United States.
But the tale is no piece of fiction. It is based on research by Hulls, who is on a mission to piece together the life of her late Chinese grandmother, Sun Yi – the persecuted journalist in her novel. Sun’s daughter is Hulls’ mother, Rose Kappeler Hulls.
The San Francisco native’s journey of discovery has led Hulls on her first trip to Asia since she was an infant, to spend two months in Hong Kong and Suzhou, where her grandmother was born. Hulls has been joined on the trip by her mother, who still has old friends in Hong Kong.
“I grew up with my grandmother [in San Francisco]. She mostly spoke Shanghainese with my mum, and with her mental state I never got to know her,” says Hulls, 32, adding that her grandmother had bipolar disorder. “I knew she was a writer and journalist, but her voice just wasn’t accessible to me.
“After she died [in 2012], I felt a lot of regret over that and wanted to reconnect with her story.”