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 →

My Guardian Angels

Parents are the sun, water, and soil for their plants known as children. In other words, children would not grow without parents. Although most parents put in massive amounts of work to raise their children, “massive” would be an understatement in describing the amounts of work that my parents have put in to raise me. Being immigrants, my parents face racial discrimination, language barrier issues, and other difficulties in their lives. To create a pristine lifestyle for me, my mom wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to work at Oakland, risking her life everyday to make money. My dad, on the other hand, works long hours in order to financially support the family.  Continue reading →

My parents, like most others in their situation, have been through a lot. Both of them immigrated to the United States without even a basic command of English, worked hard in college, and got jobs as engineers here in the Bay Area, where they’ve lived ever since. After several years of working for their respective companies, I was born, which is where their
adventures in parenting began. Continue reading →

My Life Only Possible Through Sacrifice

       At five in the morning, when the air is still cold, my mom tiptoes out of bed quietly so she does not wake me up, grabs her laptop, and drives away to work on the empty streets. She goes to work early, so she can arrive home earlier and spend more time with me. My mom has worked so hard to get this job. When she entered this country, she didn’t even know how to spell “cake.” At the public library, my mother could not understand a conversation a threeyearold had with his mom. She thought to herself, “What can I do in this land if I’m not as good as a threeyearold?”  Continue reading →