the pumpkin saga
The drama that unfolds like some badly written soap opera, the lone child abandoned by her father at a foreign train station, the missing mother found dead, the father hiding in another foreign country, the sister who weepingly professed a similar experience years ago......

And as more dirt is dug up, it seems the only one worthy of any sympathy in this entire mess remains to be that innocent, pouting 3-year-old who looked around in confusion as concerned passersby and policemen crowded around her.

Xue had a history of violence against his wife.

His wife's blog suggests a passing affair with a married man, a man who has a child less than a year younger than little Pumpkin.

He is a husband with a wife, and has a little daughter two years of age...He was lonely and I was alone, dried wood met with roaring fire, and what must happen had happened. Lived nearly two happy months together as a family. I found myself falling deeply for this slightly naughty and yet very loveable fellow...A week before his wife returned...I drove away from our little house of love, escaped from a city that belongs to him.

As for the sister, aside from being accused of trying to claim PR costs from the trust set up in Pumpkin's name, she seems to have a personal history of dubious dealings.

A post on a NZ Chinese forum dated 5th September 2006 had said this about a certain "Grace Xue" -

Let me describe my experience first. Last year after graduating from university I got a job at a toy shop (the toy shop name was Toypal, the boss was Grace, her Chinese name Xue Jiao, and her husband Chen Zhan). At the time they wanted me to pay $6000 as deposit, but instead of money I used my husband's car as bond instead, a '98 model RVR.

After I worked for about 8 months, I asked my boss about immigrating, and hoped she would help out. She did not reply immediately, saying that she would think about it. Since then she became very weird, and slowly removed the stock and keys stored in my home, saying that she needed to swap the stock. She also took away $2000, and the final time she took away all the stock in my hands. Then she and her boyfriend played missing, they would not pick up the phone, there was no one at their house, and they did not pay me my salary.

A few days later I received a letter from her, saying that they had stopped employing me since 9th May, and demanded that I give the car I had used as bond to them. When I saw the letter I realised that they had started planning as soon as we mentioned immigrating, first lying to us that they needed to borrow money to buy stock, and then took all the stock from me, then tried to swindle us of our car and two months worth of pay.

At the same time, Grace sent a fax to the immigration department, telling them that I had long since been unemployed by their company, asking them to cancel my visa. Later, the immigration department sent a letter to me, asking me to explain and telling me I had 21 days before being deported. ......Later a friend from the tax office told me that her financial records had always had problems, all her toys were cash income, she's always telling the tax office people that either she lost her money or she lost her stock...

Later, when I didn't give my car to them, they went to the police and tried to get the police to take it off me, but the police rang me, so I said that we used the car as bond. After checking they found that the previous owner of the car was indeed my husband, and then they told the police that they had bought the car from me using cash. In the end the police decided that...we should work it out at court...

One year later, after this whole thing came to light, the same poster points out that this Grace Xue earns a substantial amount from her business dealings and her property investments. She should have no problems supporting Pumpkin on her own, and there really is very little need of a public trust. Similarly, if the grandmother takes custody, the grandmother reportedly also has considerable wealth and Pumpkin will have no need of the trust funds either way.

Probably because of nationality issues, a lot of people want Pumpkin to end up in her sister's custody. But if the above stories were true, one wonders if the father may have unintentionally made a prudent decision. Perhaps it's in the best interest of the child to stay as far away from the Xue side of the family as possible.

On the other hand, I believe the whole "like father, like child" thing is complete bull. She doesn't "get it" from her father. She's the one who chooses to act like a scumbag.