Rediscovering Magic: Alexandra Chan’s Journey Through Grief and Legacy

Growing up, Alexandra Chan’s life was imbued with what she calls Old Chan Magic, emanating from her father, Robert Earl Chan. An extraordinary man, he escaped Japanese imprisonment during WWII by flying a mail plane to freedom and later invented the first lens to capture Earth from space as an optical engineer for Kodak. His larger-than-life presence and charisma left a lasting impression on Alexandra. When he died in 2016 at the age of 102, Alexandra, guided by logic and reason her entire life, was shattered.

In her grief, Alexandra turned to writing, a vessel for unexpected healing. By chronicling her father’s life and that of her grandfather, Chung T’ai Peng, who escaped beheading in China in 1889 and settled in Georgia during the Jim Crow era, Alexandra discovered she was also telling her own story. Her memoir, “In the Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic,” intertwines family history with a touch of myth and magic.

An archaeologist by trade, Alexandra grew up in the 1970s and 80s, part of the last generation before the internet. Despite a stereotypical American childhood, being part of a mixed-race, Chinese-American family in a predominantly white town made her straddle cultures. Unlike many from immigrant families, Alexandra did not struggle with her Asian identity, feeling special as part of the Chan clan. Her father’s remarkable feats, from defying Jim Crow laws to becoming a Kodak engineer and a colonel in the US military, filled her with pride.

Her mother, Karen Elizabeth Smith, a pioneering female coder and Kodak executive, died in 2011. When her father passed four and a half years later, the combined grief overwhelmed Alexandra. She channeled her sorrow into creative pursuits: playing music, writing, and painting. A year after her father’s death, she launched an online shop, Rising Phoenix Arts, showcasing her Chinese brush paintings.

In the Garden Behind the Moon, adorned with her artwork, delves into her father’s larger-than-life legacy and her own journey through grief. Alexandra’s memoir reflects on generational trauma, understanding that her intense grief was tied to old refugee pain passed down through her family. This realization cast new light on the Old Chan Magic, revealing it as both a gift and a response to trauma.

Despite the heavy subject matter, Alexandra’s memoir exudes wonder and hope, mirroring her rediscovery of magic through writing. She found solace in writing, feeling as though she was spending time with her loved ones and transforming her grief into a beautiful, healing process.

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