Small summary for my project:

1)family tree (4 generations, start from my grandparents)
what: to discover the relationships between my family and the extended family based on the year of birth and generation
how: design a visualization diagram based on the concentric tree rings instead of a vertical hierarchical chart (information: english name, chinese name, year of birth, relationship)

2)migration path of my family (map)
what: to show the migration path of my family from the start of my grandparents immigrated from China to Malaysia. Also, to show the fact that the children have moved to other cities to seek for more job opportunities after they grew up.
how:

Go back to the initial mind mapping of time concept, order and sequence have mentioned in the previous post. From there, I integrated the meaning of Lin 林, the tree. From there came to the idea of the order and the sequence of a tree grows. It starts with a seed and needs time and nutrition to produce all of its parts – roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits – and to grow larger.

So, I am thinking to use the growth of tree to be the idea of visualisation diagram and integrate with Malaysia map to show the migration path of my family which is

• China is the root of my family
  why? because there is a Chinese proverb called 寻根溯源，“寻根” literally means seek root and “溯源” means trace to the source. Undoubtedly, our ancestors were from China.

  “Root-seeking culture is part of traditional Chinese culture, and features elements suchas ethnic groups, family names, characters, and classics. As its name suggests, root-seeking culture refers to practices of seeking one’s roots and finding one’s blood ties andemotional bonds.”
  Resources: Root-seeking culture booms in China

• my grandparents were the trunk of my family – support us, educate us
• my father’s generation is branches – because they become older and start to settle down without big moving, so they have more time to gather around
• my generation is leaves – having education, seek for job opportunities, organise our own family
• my next generation is fruits – protected by leaves from insects, external factors

However, generations represented by different part of the tree are my perspective for now since we will grow up and the role will keep changing and changing. For visual and aesthetic aspects, I have no idea of how to fit this idea into map to show the migration for now.

3)memories and stories
what: mainly to narrate my grandparents’ story. eg, how he survived in those tough times, how he started his business, how he taught his children and etc.
how: stories, old photograph, some documents

Resources :
Forest Fact: How a tree grows
Tree trunks – general facts and information