Author’s afterword:The ancient story of Eng Zisuey is part of the traditional lore of the Eng clan. Eng is the common English spelling of my surname in Cantonese; Wu is the pronunciation in Mandarin. While our family is Cantonese on my father’s side, he or a relative chose to use the Mandarin version of our name when he arrived in the U.S. as a child because Mandarin is the official Chinese language. The Eng clan story goes back to Eng Zisuey’s experiences in ancient times, and he is said to be the only surviving member of his family to survive an attempt at wiping out the family. Therefore, all Engs since his time are considered descendants of him.
When I first read about the possibility that scientists might someday reclaim the DNA of extinct creatures and recreate them, I thought of wh
