by Jenn | Dec 3, 2019 | Asian American Identity, Asian American Literature
Confession: I dropped out of Chinese school by ninth grade, despite an illustrious run of speech contest victories throughout grade school. The extra three hours of school on weekends was just too much, even for the bookworm I was (and still am). Naturally, I used the...
by Jenn | Aug 12, 2019 | Asian American Identity
I’ve always had a beef with Remy from Ratatouille. His mantra, “Anyone can cook,” is meant to be empowering, but I find it a bit discouraging. If anyone can cook, why should I bother? (I should note that as a Four in the Enneagram personality typing...
by Jenn | Jun 4, 2019 | Asian American Identity, Web Design
The History of PAAC Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, writer Liz Lin published an essay titled, “The Loneliness of the Progressive Asian American Christian.” At the end she linked to a new Facebook group for Progressive Asian American...
by Jenn | May 6, 2019 | Asian American Identity, Small Business
Every year at the beginning of May, my social media timeline politely reminds me of the four days it took to birth my son. It is both mildly amusing and slightly traumatic to see the progression of photos from cheerfully optimistic to desperately stressed out. Every...
by Jenn | Feb 14, 2019 | Asian American Identity, Creative Writing
“Are you excited to finally be going back?” Eugene squeezed Artemis’s hand when she didn’t respond. “Hey, you awake?” “Oh, yeah, I guess. Excited, terrified, same thing.” “Why terrified? Taiwan is great. The food,...
by Jenn | Feb 5, 2019 | Asian American Identity
You would think it would be hard to forget that I’m not white. I’m a Chinese-American woman, born, raised and educated in the Midwest. I was one of maybe a dozen Asian students in my high school graduating class of 400. I didn’t have a single Asian(-American) teacher...
by Jenn | Jan 28, 2019 | Asian American Identity, Eating Disorder Recovery, Personal
I went to New York last weekend to meet with the incoming and outgoing executive teams of Mochi magazine, where I have somehow found myself as editor in chief. Besides my standard imposter syndrome (I’ve never taken a single journalism, marketing, or business...
by Jenn | Jan 14, 2019 | Asian American Identity
h/t my pal Chris Paek for the genius wordplay “As I Am” You would think that being an Asian American writer would come naturally to me. After all, my parents are Taiwanese immigrants, l was born and raised in the U.S., and I write things. But accepting...
by Jenn | Apr 18, 2018 | Asian American Identity
I was born, raised, educated, married, and churched in the Midwest, where Asian-American representation is…rather sparse, to say the least. For a long time, I didn’t notice the lack of representation or think that it mattered. Growing up in a Chinese immigrant...
