Two important life lessons I learned from spending an hour at the local Starbucks with my dad. A Chinese Canadian story that crosses 4 generations, spanning from Hong Kong to Canada. It’s Friday morning and I’m at my parents’ house working on my blog. My dad’s downstairs doing his thing. Read more…
Growing up as an Asian Canadian, I often felt I needed to prove my English skills worthy to the white folks. “Your English is pretty good for a Chinese person.” “Are you sure you don’t want to participate in the school’s ESL (English as a Second Language) program?” “Do you Read more…
I’ve been on the receiving end of racism and cultural insensitivity. And the worst came from someone who shared the same ethnicity and many aspects of my culture as me. “You can’t use those words to describe that culture unless you belong to that culture…because then you can use whatever Read more…
EPISODE 22: HOW I LEARNED TO EMBRACE MY CHINESE CANADIAN CULTURE https://youtu.be/sjSsXmQlzAI “In my life, I’ve been called many things.” Growing up in the 90s in a predominantly Caucasian community, I got the usual questions and comments. Here’s a sample with answers I should have given back instead of silently Read more…
When you want your kid to grow up tough enough to face the world but you don’t want to become your parents…What do you do? “Suck it up.” “Stop crying.” “Toughen up.” “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” Asian Values Around Hard Work and Perseverance Growing up with Read more…
EPISODE 21: 3 THINGS ASIAN PARENTS WITH GROWN KIDS NEED TO STOP DOING https://youtu.be/17fPVsje91k You can’t seem to get through to your 20 something or 30 something-year-old “kid”. They don’t want to talk to you. At family dinner, they’re on their phones, not much eye contact or they’ll bark one-word Read more…
EPISODE 14: WHY I DON’T CARE IF MY CHILD CLIMBS THE CORPORATE LADDER (EVEN THOUGH I’M AN ASIAN MOM) “Doctor or Lawyer. Anything else is not good enough” Ok so my parents have never said that to me and generally, they’ve been pretty good about respecting my career decisions. They’ve Read more…
EPISODE 6: HOW BEING RAISED BY IMMIGRANT PARENTS AFFECTS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTTUmqUta-U& My daughter and I have this routine where we make muffins together every weekend while my husband, Brian does his open houses. Recently, we were having breakfast when I mention to Brian that I’m going to Read more…
Remember those shows where they would show clips from old episodes? I loved them because it was like reliving the best parts of the season. With over 60 posts, it’s been an incredible journey and I’m so grateful to all my readers. Every story told, every word read, every sentence digested Read more…
The quiet, submissive Japanese businesswoman; the self-sacrificing, man-pleasing Chinese wife; the docile, needy Korean female international student. Whenever I hear these stereotypes, I first cringe in disgust knowing that these are some people’s fantasies; then, a wave of anger hits me like a ton of bricks, mad about the misperception Read more…