Importance Score: 45 / 100 🔵
Heirloom Gold: Stories of Asian American Women and Their Golden Treasures
Rubies adorning chokers, vibrant emerald strands, and delicate, opalescent pearl headpieces – these are just some of the exquisite gold jewelry treasures that Farah Khalid admired for years, knowing they would one day be hers. For many Asian families, passing down gold heirlooms is tradition, and these keepsakes are more than just adornment; they are seen as a valuable asset that can be traded or sold.
A Legacy Passed Down Too Soon
That day arrived sooner than expected. In 2013, Khalid’s mother succumbed to an unforeseen illness, dividing her jewelry collection between Farah and her elder sister, Lubna. Tragedy struck again in 2021 when Lubna passed away at 47, leaving the remainder of their mother’s treasured items to Khalid.
Wishing to honor her family, Khalid longed to wear the jewelry, but her preference leaned towards silver. She chose to transform some of the smaller pieces in Lahore, Pakistan, into a necklace bearing her mother’s and sister’s names translated into Urdu, washing the necklace to soften its yellow tones, increasing its wearability.
“Having their names close to me on something they once wore holds profound significance – it allows me to keep them close,” said Khalid, 48, a Brooklyn-based film director.
For numerous Asian American women, inheriting such family heirlooms sparks reflections on integrating the past with the present. While some safeguard these treasures in safe deposit boxes, others reserve them for momentous occasions or reshape them into contemporary, wearable designs. Here are stories from four other women about the stories behind their gold jewelry.
‘Tiny Little Piece of History’
Alicia Penn, 42, Charleston, S.C.
Growing up in Baltimore, Alicia Penn and her siblings routinely visited a jewelry store with their mother after temple visits. Her mother, a Cambodian immigrant, would haggle with the owners, also Cambodian family friends, purchasing gold items not to keep, but to resell to friends for a profit.
Penn never questioned her mother’s actions. “She explained it as a way to invest while enjoying buying things,” Penn recalled. “I found it an interesting approach to investing, distinct from traditional stocks and bonds.”
Unbeknownst to Penn, the Khmer Rouge had abolished Cambodia’s currency, increasing gold’s value. Penn’s parents left before the worst years, but her grandmother was not as fortunate.
Her grandmother arrived in the United States in 1980 and helped raise Penn and her siblings. Penn learned of her grandmother’s escape in 2022, during a visit to her mother’s bank locker where she was invited to choose a jewelry item: a small, flat gold piece shaped like a mermaid.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” Penn stated.
The charm was one of two remaining from a gold belt that belonged to her grandmother. She had sold or bartered the charms, to escape to Thailand on foot.
Penn wears the charm on a heavy gold chain. “It’s this tiny piece of history that can’t be replicated,” Penn emphasized. “Nobody crafts things like this anymore.”
‘I Want to Wear It’
Nigar Iqbal Flores, 39, Clovis, Calif.
Nigar Iqbal Flores’s marriage to a man outside of her Pakistani culture has complicated the matter of who inherits her family gold, further complicated by her having three sons. “One issue that I have to contemplate is: Will my kids marry a Desi girl who cherishes this jewelry?” Flores questioned. “Or will they marry someone who doesn’t?”
Though her children are young, the questions offer a chance for a new tradition.
When Flores’s parents wedded in Karachi, her paternal family insisted that her mother not work. Defying them, she became a professor and spent her first earning on an emerald set, including a necklace, earrings, a tikka, and a ring.
“As a child, I remember thinking, What a unique set because circles aren’t typically used,” Flores recalled. Her mother explained that she designed them herself.
Her mother gifted Flores the set the day after her wedding in 2012. Now, Flores seeks opportunities to wear her mother’s emerald jewelry. “I exclusively purchase green shalwar kameez now!” she said, “Because I really want to wear it.”
Something Reimagined
Robin Kasner, 41, Chicago
Robin Kasner recalls her 16th birthday as an ordeal. She received a jade bangle that fit so snugly, she needed her popo(grandmother), her mother, oil, and a plastic bag to put it on. “I didn’t remove it for 20 years,” Kasner said, “Until it shattered.”
A spontaneous visit to a batting cage resulted in it breaking into four pieces. Kasner called her mother tearfully, who reassured her, stating that in Chinese culture, broken jade signifies protection, and advised Kasner to keep the pieces. But Kasner was determined to repurpose salvage it.
She found Spur, a jeweler in New York that reimagines heirlooms into everyday pieces. The broken bangle was redesigned into a smooth, curved jade pendant attached to a 22-karat gold chain. “I love that the broken piece became something new, hopefully to pass on to my future daughter,” Kasner said.
An ‘Acceptance of the Relationship’
Lisa Kumar, 51, Franklin, Mich.
As a child, Lisa Kumar disliked the yellow gold common in Indian jewelry. Her perspective shifted as her mother, now 83, began gifting more and more items to her. For Kumar, the jewelry represents a hard-won connection.
Kumar’s father moved from Mumbai to the United States as a student in the 1960s. He met her mother, who is white, and they married, a choice his parents disliked. The couple visited his family in India shortly after their wedding, and Kumar’s mother remained for nearly two months to travel around southern India with her new in-laws. “That was an important thing to her relationship with them because they didn’t think that she could manage,” Kumar said. “And she did.”
Over the years, Kumar’s grandmother gave her daughter-in-law jewelry and simple items to wear, like a set of gold bangles. “My grandmother gifting this to her signified acceptance of the relationship, acceptance of my mother,” Kumar said.
Kumar now wears the items and intends to pass them to her daughter, who is 20 and mostly wears silver. “I’m hopeful that as she ages,” Kumar stated, “she’ll appreciate it as I have.”