Re: Thank You
Is it possible for a child to have been brought up by kind, honest, and hardworking parents, only to emerge as cold, cynical, and unwilling?
The answer is yes. I would know because I was that child. Continue reading
Re: Thank You
Is it possible for a child to have been brought up by kind, honest, and hardworking parents, only to emerge as cold, cynical, and unwilling?
The answer is yes. I would know because I was that child. Continue reading
What Everyone Knows/What I Know
Emerald Ip
What everyone knows about her is that she’s a devoted mother and housewife. She jokes to other parents about being her children’s chauffeur and throws in an offer for their friends to tag along. She packs freshly cooked rice and pasta inside dented metal thermoses each morning before they go to school and doesn’t complain when the canisters come home only half empty. She sends out baseballbatsized home grown zucchini and gets homegrown apples in return. Continue reading
J and Y converse from a bench perched on a mountaintop. In front of them lies the city of Saratoga: rows and rows of houses framed by trees and disjoint by roads, all of which is encompassed by fathering mountains. Their speech may sound indistinct and mundane to the casual listener, but it encompasses every highlight of their lives, and every fantasy they have of their future. Continue reading
I appreciate my father, despite being strict and stubborn at certain times, for being a hardworking and inspiring man. He went through harsh times in China, but he worked hard in his studies to move to America to make a better life for himself and his children. Continue reading
For ChineseAmerican immigrants, most of the pressures they face today are the same as those they faced during China’s Cultural Revolution, only internalized. In my childhood, I remember never spending money for anything that was not absolutely necessary. In restaurants, we always ordered inexpensive food and no drinks or dessert, and they rarely ever bought anything until they needed to. Continue reading
Battles
Smantha Shieh
I broke the news to her in the corner of a dimly lit sushi restaurant, with faded plastic boats bobbing beside us in their artificial moat, making me slightly sick to my already nervous stomach.
“Mom,” I told her, wringing my hands together in front of my untouched dinner, “I want to go to art school.” Continue reading
Dear Mom and Dad,
It’s crazy how fast these years are going by it seems like just yesterday that I was complaining about not wanting to move for my last year of elementary school. When I think about it now, I’m so glad that I did. I was able to have a fresh start, step out of my comfort zone, meet countless of new people, and start to settle down in my new neighborhood. Memories like these show how fast time goes by. Soon your little baby will be all grown up and graduating from college. I know these past sixteen years haven’t necessarily been the easiest, and I want to thank you guys for all that you’ve sacrificed to give me the best life possible. Continue reading
Love is Sacrifice
Every day after school, my mom hurriedly ran those same steps to that rusty back door with an apron hanging on her neck. She punched the time card from the wall and emerged into the massive restaurant. Sweeping the floor, setting up the table, organizing the furniture, my mom quickly started to work. Five hours later, after the restaurant closed, my dad went to pick up my exhausted mom to finally go home. This was just one typical day when my parents first immigrated to the United States. Seeking their American dream to get better education and religious freedom, my parents immigrated to the United Sates in 1997. Even though they had a flourishing life in China, they wanted the best for themselves and their family. Continue reading
Breaking the Stereotype
Asian parents. They value grades above all else; anything less than a hundred percent means doom for the poor student. The stereotype is wellknown in the Bay Area, and there are definitely parents who put that kind of pressure on their children. Luckily for me, my parents don’t fall under that category. I am a fairly average Asian kid who presents the same problems to my parents as many other Asian kids do, but instead of forcing me to do hours upon hours of math problems or get perfect scores on all of my tests, my parents have supported my interests (which don’t include math) and considered improvement more important than A’s. This has played a major role in reducing the stress in my life. Continue reading
Mother’s Day this year was in many ways the same as in previous years; my brother and I made own cards and presented them to mom the next morning together with a cup of hot black sesame soup. It was different this year though, that mom cried after reading our cards and later put them in a frame to hang on the wall by her bed. I sort of understand why, with my younger brother now taller than mom, we have become reluctant to express our love as we used to: an evening good night hug has been replaced with a mere shout out of “good night mom” and we are less willing to share our thoughts with each other as we grow older. So it must be a big adjustment to her, as she still calls grandma in China every evening and has long conversations most of the time. Continue reading