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| Tiny Eyes Comics |
Even though it’s hard for Asian parents to say ‘I Love You,’ they show their love in many other ways like through cooking and food.
One day when I was doing my zombie scroll down
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Tiny Eyes is a comic series that shares slices of everyday life from a Chinese perspective. The series aims to create a fun, intimate and authentic space for those who are curious about China.
I was inspired by these comics so I reached out to Siyu, the artist behind Tiny Eyes to collaborate. I love how her comics give me a fun and light-hearted way to understand my culture better. There were so many that I could relate to, especially the ones about my mom.
So we decided to start a 3-part series, using her comics to help tell my personal stories about how much I love my mom.
Click here for part 2
Click here for part 3
Hope you enjoy!
Every mother-daughter relationship is different.
Some women can only tolerate their mothers for a moment before needing to exit the room.
Other women can hang out with their moms every freaking day.
Some are estranged and some lost their mothers too soon to figure out where they stand.
My mom and I are somewhere in between the first two.
When I was little, my mom poured her love into making traditional Chinese soups for my sisters and me.
FYI: I’m not talking Hot and Sour or Egg Drop.
I’m talking Ching Bo Leung (清补凉), with dried goji berries, lotus seeds, fox nut barely, pork bones, dates and a bunch of other herbal ingredients that give the soup a distinctive taste.
As a kid, I never enjoyed drinking them because the taste made me gag.
I’d whine,
“Can’t we just have Campbell’s chicken noodle? You know, like Becky’s family?”
So my mom would use her super convincing powers to get us to drink her soup.
First, She would state all the health benefits that the soup has.
I’d roll my eyes. How can the water that boiled lotus seeds improve my health?
Then, she’d tell me it tastes different this time because she added chicken broth to make it taste more restaurant-style.
I’d take a sniff of my soup, scoff and call her bluff.
Lastly, she’d bribe me with Haw flakes (A Chinese sweet treat made from Chinese hawthorn fruit).
And somehow that’ll work. (Yes – SMH).
I’d plug my nose, chugging this hot liquid down my throat while fixating on the small, sweet, maroon cylinder at the edge of the dinner table.
At that moment, my mom would begin eating the Chinese soup ingredients (Tong Ja in Cantonese 湯楂)
While my sisters and I quickly drank our soups and gobbled up on rice and whatever yummy dishes she had made us for dinner, my mom would always eat the Tong Ja first and pick at whatever was left to fill herself up.
I remember asking her why she did this.
I mean, I could barely stand the soup, how could she eat the soup ingredients? (Or fish tails and heads like the comic)
She’d always respond,
“I love eating them.”
When I was young, I honestly believed her.
But as I got older, I knew she was only saying this because she wanted the best for her daughters.
So my mom and I share this joke.
I tease her that when the time comes and she is no longer here, I would bring Ching Bo Leung Tong Ja during Ching Ming (Tomb-Sweeping Day) because “She loves eating them”.
She knows I know the truth so she’d laugh and nod while reminding me to also bring a few Asian pears in case her tastes change in the afterlife.
Recently, I was reminiscing about this memory while feeding my daughter a mango.
I had cut the mango into two halves and she had just finished the first half. While scooping perfect cubes of mango from the second half into her mouth, I looked down at the seed. I grab it, peel off the long strip of yellow skin and take a big bite of its stringy flesh.
So when the time comes and my daughter asks me why I eat the seed, I will tell her, “I love eating them.”
Click here for part 2
Click here for part 3
So Readers, what are some stories about your mom that makes you love her so much?
