In Lockdown With My White In-Laws
Frankie Huang evacuated Shanghai and moved to the U.S. to live with her husband’s New England parents. Here’s how it’s going.
I met my in-laws for the first time just a couple days before I tied the knot with my husband five years ago. I remember being a little nervous about making a good impression, but I’ve been charming the hell out of friends’ parents since I could string a sentence together, so I knew I could make this relationship work. Thankfully my in-laws and I have gotten along since day one.
I’m a Chinese immigrant who moved to the states as a child. Tom and Nancy* are born-and-bred New Englanders (Tom is a Mayflower descendant). Together, we’ve always shared a warm, unforced chemistry devoid of small talk and platitudes. This may, however, have something to do with the fact that I see them no more than twice a year for holidays and family functions, and spend the rest of my time halfway across the world in Shanghai.
In February, when the coronavirus situation in China was looking bleak, and one country after another imposed travel bans on my home country, my husband Mark and I decided to make a run for the U.S. while there were still flights available. We were convinced that the U.S. would be prepared to handle the virus when it mounted its…
