Prose
Stories, personal narratives, and first-hand experiences of Asian youth around the world
Dirge for an Immigrant
A poem about the constant burning of California's (and elsewhere's) Chinatowns. From Antioch (1876) to San Jose (1887) to Santa Ana (1906), Chinatown has been under siege on a horrific, repeating cycle. I want to showcase how upset I was that this history was not addressed nor "apologized" for until nearly a century and a half later. I really want more people to be aware of Chinatown's history and how it's been so impacted by white supremacy in the governing/laws that allowed this destruction to occur.
Morning in the Life of a 21st Century Student
6:00 am -
You blearily wake up from a dream about a penguin clinging to the edge of a sheet of ice. In its eyes, it has that pleading, gut-wrenching look you always see in animals on National Geographic ads. It’s going to be a long day.
白蛇传 / transformation
but you do not hear them. if you had, you would have known to flee—
tripping over the calluses of your own feet to escape.
if you had, you would have known to tear yourself apart—
shedding the silken layers of your loveliest qípáo to find a way out.
crave
Language shift in American immigrants typically occurs after three generations, with the third generation communicating entirely in English rather than the heritage language.
Asian Americans often demonstrate accelerated rates
of language shift compared to other immigrant groups.
Burn
And the blonde girl was always so patronizing. She thought that she was so special for being the only one that knew him and Bella were dating. She’d wink at Bella during football games and lunch. She’d tell Bella that she was so cool, so exotic, so smart. That he and Bella were such an unexpected pairing – she was surprised Bella was even his type – but they were a match made in heaven.
Mini-Me
Meeting this new person prompted me to feel emotional about the connection to home I lost by attending boarding school. I wrote this poem as a theoretical letter to her. It is advice for her next years at the school I am now preparing to graduate from.
Numb is Trapped, in Numbers
In a society that is defined by the internet, the media and sensory overload, is there true original thought? Garnering unprecedented amounts of information is no longer to satisfy an innate curiosity, but instead to feed the urge of monetization, of competition that leads to inequality, to suffering.
