| 1905 | Jia’s grandfather is born |
| 1910, Aug. 29 | Japan annexes Korea as a colony |
| 1931 | Manchurian Incident: Japan sets up a pup pet government in northeastern China |
| 1937 | Outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War |
| 1940 | Jia’s father is born |
| 1943 | Jia’s mother is born |
| 1945, Aug. 15 | Korean liberation from Japan with the end of World War II |
| 1948, Aug. 15 | Establishment of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) |
| 1948, Sept. 9 | Establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) |
| 1949, Oct. 1 | Establishment of the People’s Republic of China, led by Mao Zedong |
| 1950, Jun. 25 | Korean War begins |
| 1953, Jul. 27 | Korean War Armistice Agreement, after American and South Korean forces fight Chinese and North Korean forces to a stalemate |
| 1966 | Jia’s sister is born |
| 1971 | Jia is born |
| 1976, Sept. 9 | Death of Mao Zedong |
| 1989 | World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang |
| 1994, Jul. 8 | Death of Kim Il Sung |
| 1995-1999 | Floods in 1995 and 1996 contribute to a famine that kills between 200,000 and 3.5 million and displaces tens or hundreds of thousands to China, Mongolia, Russia, Vietnam, and Thailand |
| 1997, Oct. 8 | Kim Jong Il officially assumes the titles General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defense Commission |
| 2004 | 460 North Koreans arrive in South Korea, after having traveled the length of China to Vietnam, where they were discovered |
| 2006, Aug. 22 | In a Bangkok suburb Thai police discover 175 North Koreans hoping for asylum |