These days, headlines are filled with stories of anti-Asian violence and harassment. One video that particularly affected me was of an attack on a 65-year-old Filipino Woman near Times Square, where security guards standing within feet of her failed to intervene while a man kicked and stomped on her, yelling, “You don’t belong here.”Subsequently, Andrew …
Continue reading Don’t Let Anyone Sow Division Between the Races
As I kid, I visited my grandparents in San Francisco Chinatown weekly with my parents. They lived in the top unit of their triplex on Leavenworth Street while renting out the other apartments to immigrant families, helping newcomers get a foothold in the U.S. as others had helped them when they were new to the …
Continue reading Happy Childhood Memories of Chinatown and Hoping For Its Survival
When quarantine began, I joined a writing group. I wanted to regain focus, connect socially, and revisit an old dream. In university, literature classes felt like sacred space. Words flowed through my mind, painting pictures, sparking ideas, injecting oxygen. By sophomore year, I thought I would major in English Literature. But when I expressed my …
Continue reading Re-Sparking An Old Dream By Committing to My Book Publishing Quest
The pandemic has devastated the San Francisco and Oakland Chinatowns, leaving them with much less tourism and foot traffic. That’s why this year, I am dedicating the lunar new year season to doing what I can to give back to these communities that formed such a memorable backdrop to my childhood. Memories of Chinatown As …
Continue reading Why I’ll Celebrate Lunar New Year by Helping Chinatown
A fond reminiscence of those days when we could still gather at huge arenas, and I joined my daughter at her first BTS concert.
Much has been made about Vice President Harris’s multi-racial ethnicity, how it has shaped her, how it inspires girls of color, and how people perceive her. Her inauguration has caused me to reflect on my upbringing and its effect.
(This article was first published on News Break. You can view it here!) After opening presents at Christmas, my teen, a K-Pop fan, expressed how grateful she was that her aunts and I had bothered to learn what specific groups and artifacts she was interested in before gifting her. She was blissfully content with the …
Continue reading Surprising Things to Know About Your Devoted Kpop Fan
After Death, a Simple Furnishing Becomes a Powerful Artifact. An essay on how mementos help us process grief.
(This article was published in Change Your Mind, Change Your Life. Take a look here! A revised version was published on News Break, which you can see here.) I never expected quarantine to last so long. Naively, I thought this was a chance for our country to unify. I joined other crafters in making masks …
Continue reading Floundering to Hopeful — My Quarantine Evolution