A sentence I thought I’d never say: This is the fourth time I’ve gone back to the U.S. in a year and a half. It’s no longer as shocking as it used to be, and maybe that’s a good thing. The first…
On eating dumplings and wrapping tacos
Zandie effortlessly pops the entire clove of garlic into her mouth. It’s Chinese New Year and we’re bao-ing dumplings to celebrate, as per new year’s eve tradition. The garlic clove just finished its swim in a shallow dish of shaoxing wine vinegar,…
How to spend Chinese New Year in Shanghai
I can always get behind traditions involving food. Shanghai is wonderfully quiet during the Chinese New Year. This is a time when most foreigners peace out to seek warmer climates and most Chinese return home to celebrate with their families and be pestered about…
That 'aha' moment
I used to think that the way we can make a new place feel like a home, that is to say, like a familiar place, was by filling it with the things that make us feel at home. For me, that meant…
Why do we stop writing?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot about over the past several weeks. Do we stop writing because we have too many stories to tell or because we have too few? And when we do stop, how do we get ourselves…
Chinese Ayis: The Definitive Field Guide
The ayi is as quintessentially Chinese as cups of hot water with every meal, stir-fried eggs and tomato, hiking up the Great Wall (不到长城非好汉), or drinking ginger tea when you are sick (“antibiotics? how silly of you!”).