“My grandpa was born in—the big area is called Guangzhou, China, and his village was in the Kaiping area district,” Tremayne says, mentally working his way through the cities and villages he’s been before to recall the names that first defined his family.
“And then my grandma, she grew up in Hiroshima.”
As a young teen, Tremayne and his family traveled to Asia, a pilgrimage of sorts, so he could finally experience in person the cultures that shaped his grandparents and, by extension, him, his mom, and his siblings.
“It was really cool to see both of them. Japan was pretty special because I got to see where my grandma’s village was in Hiroshima. And we traveled back to the little house in the village where she grew up and saw her friends and some family, so that was special,” he shares.
“And then the same as for my grandpa, when we went to China, we went all the way to Guangzhou to his village and got to see his house he grew up in, which was still locked up since his family had all moved on, it was still there.”