Michelle Pehlman and I were talking about other writers we’ve encountered on Substack with Asian heritage or other Asia connections (such as living in Asia at some point, etc), and I’d like to introduce her to some of you. So I am going to tag a few Asian writers and others who may have various Asian ties. I have really enjoyed connecting with some of you here. Here are some Substack writers I’ve enjoyed reading or getting to know a bit:
**If any of you have a moment and would like to share a link to your Substack, or introduce yourself, please feel free!
**If you have other friends here on Substack with Asian ties, we’d love to know of those writers, too.
**If I listed someone incorrectly, just let me know.
**Feel free to tell us more about your life—such as if you currently live in Asia, or you’re an immigrant (or descendant of immigrants) living elsewhere, or an ex pat living in Asia now, or if you have some other sort of ties.
**Some of you have written great articles about cultural concepts, such as “losing face,” or food you loved, or what it’s like to grow up with Asian parents in another country. Some of you do really great articles about the language or places you love in Asia. Feel free to share a link to any articles that might be of interest.
(Photo I took in 2011 at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat in China on a return trip.)
In my twenties, I taught in Jiangxi Province of China, and after I returned to the US, I taught students from many countries including Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand. I’ve enjoyed being involved with the local Chinese church in the US. I used to rent extra rooms to international students when I was single, and enjoyed that a lot, too.
I was lucky enough we had Japanese in the home growing up, but I got a bit lazy and started answering in English and now I’m paying the price. Luckily my kiwi husband can speak Japanese and in fact, better than me.🙈
I lived in Japan when I was a kid and have been back many times. I love my heritage, I love that I have a Japanese name.
My mum is an amazing cook, but I was always part of her assembly line, doing parts of the jobs, but never the full thing. Now my kids are begging me to get the recipes. I tried this once, flew up to learn kaarage and other meals. I took my tripod so I could record it and pass it along to everyone. When I arrived, she had already started and had the chicken marinating already?!? (My mum is very efficient)
Thank you, Mika! Good incentive to visit Mom again 🥰. What a rich heritage. Two islands on two different hemispheres. Do you live in New Zealand now? I had a kiwi flat mate in Hong Kong during my short time there and also got to know some Aussies. Great people.
I have enjoyed your Substack and like your creativity and gracious way of connecting other writers. How fun that you’re married to a kiwi and have a kiwi dad.
I am dreaming of visiting Australia and hoping perhaps this winter (your summer?) will work out. My close Chinese friend married an American and they ended up working and living in Australia. They live on the beach. I figure I need to travel while it is still possible with my health. And I would so enjoy seeing her and her family. Her mum from China is living with them. When I lived in China, her parents lived very near me on the medical college campus. Her mother worried I wasn’t figuring out the little single propane burner kitchen and made me chicken hundun (wanton soup) which makes my mouth water thinking about this love her daughter delivered to my apartment, steaming hot and so delicious. Sometimes I managed to fix great meals but sometimes I flopped. Back then the open air market in a back alley served as our “grocery store” and I ate a lot of tofu because the meat hung in the sun, or we had to kill our own chickens. I wasn’t really set up to butcher chickens on my balcony! Also the pressed ducks my friends brought back hung on my balcony after they visited the down coat factory!
My mom in Oregon was a phenomenal cook. But I understand your point about her marinating the meat earlier! If I cooked and baked like my mom l would be portly, so I cook differently. Besides I don’t have the energy to be as amazing in the kitchen as my mom was. I have MS so my husband kindly helps cook. Plus mom always milked her Jersey cow twice a day, grew all of the vegetables (I still enjoy gardening) and we had fresh fruit on our farm. We raised our own beef, pork, chickens for eggs etc. The whipped cream and butter came from our milk cow Sunshine. I learned how to cook some great Asian dishes while in China but also from Asian renters and roommates. A big takeaway is how to keep the stir fry veggies vivid green and fresh. Cooking together is such a wonderful way to connect, and Chinese friends here still love to make jaotzi together. I can make jaotzi from scratch though it’s a lot of work. Fun as a community building event. My first college roommate was Japanese and she wants us to visit. I hope my husband and I can do so in a few years. She’s a great cook. We love Japanese food.
Thank you, Michelle. So glad that we connected recently. I’ve really loved hearing from different people on this thread and discovering new writers that I hadn’t yet come across. Very happy to get to know you!!
What a beautiful photo, Susan, and thank you for the mention. Here's a directory I'm putting together of Asian writers, if you're interested in finding more!
Awesome, thank you so much Tiffany! I appreciate that link to your directory. I have really loved reading your work and getting to know you a bit in recent months.
By the way, I love your directory. If anyone I mentioned here who is an Asian writer isn't on it, I suppose you'd be glad to hear from them, too? It's great, thank you.
Please feel free to browse, and reach out via either comment or DM if you have any particular questions for me. Looking forward to connecting with you!
Hi Susan, How's your eye doing? I hope you're managing. Sending some hugs.
Thank you for this discussion thread. A beautiful photo, and prawn dumplings! Now I'm hungry.
Hi, I'm Victoria - my publication/website is Carer Mentor: Empathy & Inspiration. It offers 'Heartfelt empathy for Caregivers. A hub of practical tools, resources, and expert insights. A portal of hope.'
I'm on a mission to shift the narrative around caregiving and support carers, in the acts of giving care but even more importantly to support caregivers themselves. You'll see resources to reflect several facets of caregiving.
The first half of this year has been dedicated to Emotional Agility, understanding emotions & dispelling/busting emotion 'myths.' I leverage research/expert's work.
My grandparents were born in China, my parents were born in Malaysia and I was born here in the UK. I've studied/worked/lived through 18 relocations, 10 countries, 4 companies and resigned from corporate in 2017
Thanks for your wonderful response, Victoria! You’re a rich resource and do a fantastic job with your articles and work with the caregiving community. And you have lived out filial piety in a profound way. Your background and life are so interesting. I can say you’ve been a great encouragement to me simply by your deep empathy and kindness. Living with multiple sclerosis myself and also caring for elders at times has been a challenge. Thanks for asking about my eye. The blood in the vitreous humor is still messing up vision but they did laser on retinal tear. I am praying I can see better for our cruise to Alaska next month!! Thanks for all you do. I truly appreciate you!!
I'm glad to hear that at least some repair was done on your eye, but I can imagine it must be very frustrating and as you said in your video, destabilising for your MS.
There is a MUCH deeper and longer discussion we shall have through future articles on identity. I've forged (literally) an identity - in the words of Brené Brown & Susan David- to enable me to be wholeheartedly me.
I've never felt I belonged anywhere/to anything..perhaps cosmopolitan or global citizen comes close, and a multi-hyphenated British-Chinese.
However, I resonated strongly with Brené's 'Braving the Wilderness' book & she introduced me to Maya Angelou's statement: 'You are only free when you realize you belong no place—you belong every place—no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great,” Angelou told Bill Moyers in a 1973 interview. (27 Jun 2017).
So, I've cultivated & evolved my sense of identity to be able to stand in the 'Wilderness'. Especially triggered by my shift from Corporate to Carer.
I don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin - my second language is French.
So, forgive me for somewhat rejecting your 'filial piety' words - of course, I appreciate your sentiment and why you generously said this, and your kindness is heartwarming, but it feels like a misnomer for me, in terms of how I define myself-my identity.
In fact, my head-heart-gut aligned decision to resign from my 'big job' was driven equally by my own needs as it was for the love of my parents...duty/respect/elders etc didn't figure in my thoughts.
I've always felt that I stand in a doorway - feet straddling many intersections and embracing everything...or perhaps I feel that I am the doorway, translating the view either side... ;-) I feel the need to write the article soon, but the caregiving mission is greater than sharing more personal reflections right now..it'll be soonish tho ;-)
Oh thank you, Victoria for explaining more about your own process. Identity is so central to our healing and growth regardless of cultural background. I apologize if that phrase was offensive. It was just on my mind as I read an article by a Chinese writer that very tenderly explained what it meant to her as she reframed the idea. I hope someday we can meet or visit. Your story intrigues me. I wrote an early post on belonging and identity inspired by a tulip!! Best wishes to you and I love hearing your thoughts.
I'm happy to share, Susan - no offence taken! I felt comfortable sharing. I shared similar thoughts with Louisa re. Diaspora. My story is a long one. Thank you for being you!
I’m glad. These conversations interest me very much. Probably my decision to later become a counselor had it’s roots in my time first in China listening to traumatic stories of those impacted by Cultural Revolution and other painful eras. Looking forward to knowing your experiences and thoughts more over time. I have been very blessed by our connection. Thanks for your compassion and empathy. Few people truly get it!!
Victoria, please write the article. I am very interested as I've sometimes felt like somewhat of a hybrid myself. In college, at first the Chinese Christian club did not want to accept me (brown Chinese from Trinidad) and another brown student from Guam. Eventually, they decided to accept us. Plus there is the generational gap between my parents, grandparents and I. And so many cultural differences. How I've phrased the question to myself and others is: How do you define "Home"? I've had friends who have lived overseas as missionaries in different parts of the world and they answer the question differently. I'd like to write about it one day but perhaps someone here can start a podcast conversation and we can bring our comments to it???
Oooh, I really like hearing you discuss this topic, Michelle, and would also enjoy reading Victoria's article and thoughts on these themes when time allows. I actually really appreciate hearing from all of you on these issues. I know your comment is directed to Victoria, and it's really a different thing, but I like to think about what it's like to experience life in a place where we are different, and what those of you from very diverse backgrounds and cultures have experienced, and the things that have shaped your ideas and self concept and identity.
So in a different way, I remember being very much the minority in a large city in China. When we'd go out, people back then would shout out Mandarin words for "Foreign Devil" or "Big Nose" as we walked or biked past. I didn't really take that personally, but it made me much more aware of how people feel as they adapt in a culture and population that look very different from themselves. I'll always remember two very touching interactions. I sat on a park bench in China once, and a women I'd never seen before shyly came up to the bench and sat down. She kept inching closer. She really wanted to see if my hair (lighter brown) felt differently from hers and finally got up the courage to ask if she could check that out. It was something of a unique moment. We couldn't converse in detail because of the language barrier, but our few words and shared humanity stayed with me.
Another close Chinese friend used to spend a lot of time at my apartment. She was a fellow teacher in our English Department at the medical college. One day she worked up the courage to ask if she could touch the bridge of my nose, and she was just really curious about the shape of our noses and how different we were. Again, I found her child-like wonder and question sweet.
Michelle, I really like your question of how people define Home. It's funny, but though I loved my early years on a farm in Oregon, I felt so at home in China, among my students. I think sometimes we have a place or another country that feels like home to us, maybe even more than where we were born. Do you think that has to do with a sense of belonging and acceptance maybe? I felt like I was loved and accepted by my students in China fully, and I had my own clear identity (and loved teaching so much) for the first time in my life. Belonging plays into it as well. I had lived among literally several thousand cousins/relatives in our rural area of Oregon growing up, and sometimes didn't feel like I was really known as an individual. Teachers would mix up our names and often call me by a cousin's name. But in China, we were maybe 11 foreigners in a city of at least a million or several million. I didn't mind not fitting in, but I understood the feeling of being a minority in a new way. I also wonder how your experience as a Christian not initially feeling accepted by the Chinese Christian club felt to you in terms of your identity and even your faith. I love knowing that in Christ, we are sisters and I am richer for having brothers and sisters with different skin colors and experiences.
I remember my Chinese students in China expressing a bit of wonder and even fear about the darker skinned people they had rarely encountered from Africa. Many of them had simply had never seen black people until later in life.
On a different note, I had to laugh when one of my Chinese friends back then asked me how I would feel if I had to work with someone who was very overweight (he used the Chinese word "peng" and gestured). I asked him why he wanted to know, and he said he felt worried about where he'd be able to stand in a small room with a heavy coworker. Again, almost no one in that city had a weight issue back then. So they just had no concept. Once a close Chinese friend invited me to her wedding in another province of China. I had to go to the very crowded train station and she told me to meet a Chinese man who was kind of fat. This mystery man would accompany me to buy my tickets on ride on the train with me to the wedding several hours away. I can imagine her amusement. Of course, the man had maybe 5-10 extra pounds and was still no at all overweight, and I'd never find this mysterious stranger in the big crowd of people teeming around the station. She knew he would find me easily and come up to me, so that's what happened.
I love to read stories that span generations of immigrants and talk about these things as people adapt to life in another country. While we are Swiss immigrants to the US on my dad's side of the family, I still liked thinking about these things, too.
On my family farm, we had a strawberry field. We had people come to pick the strawberries from so many different countries, so that was very delightful to me as a kid. I listened the Russian language, Spanish speakers, and Cambodian and Lao, and many other people. I just loved meeting these immigrants and picking strawberries together. I think I first developed a love for various cultures and people in that strawberry field.
But I think that the experience of immigrants in their formative years can be so different. The cultural pressures and way they experience belonging or standing out at school is a factor, too. I have been close friends with Chinese immigrants to the US when they had only recently arrive and now years later watched as they have raised their kids who are the next generation, ABC's.
So I truly love hearing from you and others about your experience and even struggles. Thank you, Michelle. I love your idea of someone doing a podcast or some kind of forum where various views and experiences are explored and expressed!
Thanks for tagging me on this post Victoria! I've been reading through all the comments and can definitely relate. My mother is Chinese but she grew up in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada. My father is white but was adopted by a Choctaw woman. So I can relate deeply to feeling in between worlds and cultures and having a longing for a sense of home. I now live in New Zealand and am feeling ever father away from home as all of my family is still in North America.
I love that quote from Maya Angelou and was both challenged and enamored by it while reading Braving the Wilderness. While I have a background in Physiotherapy and Positive Psychology, I am currently certifying as a Feminine Embodiment Coach and have found the embodiment practices to be a beautiful way of coming home to myself. It feels like I am gathering up all the parts of me and welcoming them home.
Loving this post and these comments, it feels like a doorway into connection with others who feel similarly. Thanks Susan for writing this!
Robin Michelle, thank you so much for joining us! Wow, your background is fascinating to me. I think your father having been adopted by a Choctaw woman adds a really interesting dimension. And your mom being Chinese and growing up in the Philippines but immigrating to Canada does as well. It’s cool that you became a physiotherapist and studied positive psychology. I originally studied physical therapy in the US but didn’t realize I had multiple sclerosis, so I ended up leaving the graduate program midway through due to health sadly. But I later became a counselor (rehabilitation field initially then other areas). I am glad you are finding ways to come home to yourself. Very delighted to hear your story. Again, thank you for joining the conversation. I have loved hearing from all of you!
Very welcome, Robin! Thank you for sharing your background and reflections. These are several rich cultures across diverse countries. ( I lived in Montreal for over a year—one of my favourite cities!). Your journey to today with the Feminine Embodiment Coaching must be quite a memoir.
Victoria, thanks for sharing this with Robin and others. I ordered a copy of the book you mentioned on wilderness and look forward to reading it. Thank you for that recommendation.
Thank you, Max. I really enjoy photography, and have loved seeing some of the beauty Asia has to offer. I haven't ever made it to Singapore but my friends said it is an amazing country. Thank you for sharing your link and for responding. Much appreciated!
Susan, thank you so much for mentioning me and other writers with Asian backgrounds. It's such a great pleasure to get to know you, and look forward to connecting with you again after my absence. I also look forward to visiting the other writers you mentioned here, and the very interesting conversations in your comment section. xo
P.S. You're so lucky to have visited the Yangshuo Mountain. I have never been there. What a beautiful picture!
@Louisa, Have you seen the movie Sight? If not I hope you can. This true story was so well done and starts out in China prior to Cultural Revolution. My post called Sight talks about this story and some of the things you and I discussed as well.
No, Susan, I haven't seen it. But I'd like to see it. I'll read your post about it and try to find the film. It reminds me of a Taiwanese film about a blind pianist and a dancer becoming friends and how they help each other. I don't remember the English name but if you're interested I'll look it up.
Oh, yes I would love to know the name of that film. Sight was produced by Angel Studios and is in theaters for a limited time. I found the doctor’s clinic in the US and am listening to his autobiography on Audible.
Hiya, and thanks Susan for creating this thread. And what a beautiful picture taken at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat!
I am originally from the UK, but have lived in Asia for nearly ten years. I am now based in Hong Kong. Scrolling down, I recognise a number of names and newsletters, so it is great to connect here too. And I am looking forward to exploring other writer's work too :)
Thanks for responding, Sarah. Have you stayed at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat? We just loved it there...very special place and the hospitality and experience was so memorable. A fairly similar kind of place that I loved in Yunnan Province in 2018 was the Linden Centre in the village of Xizhou (near Dali). Both were such wonderful places to stay, but also had fantastic staff, great food, and cultural connections.
A wonderful article, Susan. Sure is a journey down some great corners of the world. Thanks for the tag. Although admittedly, it is really making me hungry. 😋
Hi Susan, what a fun thread! I'm here because of Mika's comment on your note. 📝 😊
I'm Japanese American. My mom is from Tokyo, and her whole side of the family lives in Japan. Growing up, I was lucky enough to visit my grandparents every year because my dad worked for the airlines. (Such a gift!) I'm actually working on a post right now detailing my experience of briefly attending my mom's elementary school. She and I were working through questions yesterday trying to make sure we had the facts right.
The name of my newsletter, Nōto, comes from the Japanese word for notebook. 📒 I cherished putting these two posts together:
Erika, thank you so much for sharing about your life and background a bit, and I'm excited to read your work soon. I love that name, and can hear my former Japanese students and my first roommates in college were Japanese--I can hear them saying Nōto, I love that name! I'm hoping that my husband and I can make a trip to Japan after he retires in a couple of years. My friend Tomoko has wanted us to come for a long time. I worked in China a few years earlier in life and have made a few return trips (for about 3.5 weeks at a time), but I've never been to any other countries in the region or Japan. It's still something I'd love to do. I've also not visited Europe or Australia. I kind of hope to go visit a close Chinese friend in Australia this winter. But Japan is definitely on our radar. I love that your dad's airline job allowed you to visit grandparents in Japan every year. What a gift! I am excited to read the articles you shared. Again, delighted to 'meet you' here!! Thanks, Erika!
Thank you for the mention, Susan! It's amazing that we can meet on this platform here, without which we probably wouldn't have had a chance to connect. Looking forward to hearing more of your stories in the future!
Thank you, Clare. That’s true! I really appreciate Substack and the fun people we can meet here. Your articles about cultural trends have been memorable to me. Thanks!
Thank you, Sue. This is wonderful and I am grateful for these other connections. One of the next articles I'd like to write about is my Dad's favorite soup. Normally made with a boiled chicken, green onions, and soy sauce when I was growing up (I'm the oldest child), he later added cilantro, tomato, and ginger to make it even more delicious. I'll be sharing that recipe (and memory) next. Thanks for this again, Sue. It's another connection to my heritage. (My mother's name is Chang. Dad's name is/was Lowi-Teng. While I'm told that Chang is the one of the four most common names in China, we've never been able to connect with/track down family on the Lowi-Teng side. Share if you have come across anyone by that name.)
Oh, you’re welcome, Michelle. I look forward to reading about your Dad’s favorite soup. I loved a simple soup my Taiwanese friend made for me when I was not feeling well. It had ginger, shitake mushrooms, green onions, chicken and soy sauce too. I would also love to learn to make a good congee like they sometimes served for breakfast. I also like egg and tomato soup which also had onions. Very delicious.
Neither of them learned the language enough to speak it, but we inherited names for foods in different languages. (One grandfather was from Singapore and the other, Hong Kong.) I've heard the numbers in Chinese, plus words for "thank you" and "grandfather." Are these Cantonese terms: shay-shay-nee and yay-yay?
Ah, so your parents grew up in the US? Thank you in Mandarin is like what you said. I learned to speak/understand enough Mandarin to survive and know only a few words in Cantonese. I would have enjoyed taking more Mandarin but just learned from tutors mainly. There are many local dialects which complicates learning. My dad’s parents were both of Swiss background, so they still spoke a dialect of German sometimes. I enjoy language and learning family history and stories.
I just wrote a comment to a post by Lani, but I think it partially belongs here:
*Born in Italy, left my country at 19 and since then I mostly lived abroad, except for the 4 years I went back to study Chinese at the university.
My experience of China is definitively different from hyphenated Asian: I was raised with an Italian culture, became adult in a European one. And yet, even when I was a child I felt a connection with China, and even though the story was one of love and hate, Chinese culture had and still has a role in my life. I feel more connected with a Chinese person, hyphenated or not, than with my fellow Italians.
On the other hand, there are many similarities between Chinese and Italian culture, maybe this is what allowed me to understand the culture better, I don't know. The importance of families and expectations parents have towards their children are two common traits between China and Italy.*
I now live in Berlin, I seldom have the opportunity to speak Chinese thus I resort to listening to a couple of podcasts to keep at least my comprehension going. In this phase of my life the most significant link to China is that I am a qigong teacher and I am studying Traditional Chinese Medicine. After a rupture with China in 2007, I decided to take the things I liked and leave the rest. That the privilege of not having blood ties with China.
Looking forward to read more from this community (time allowing!).
PS I just made some Chinese dumplings yesterday, they do not look so nice but I am sure they will be delicious. And in my freezer a large bag of chicken feet is waiting for me to find the time to prepare some Feng Zhao Cantonese style...I only cooked them once many years ago when I lived in Brussels, when I invited three Chinese friends and cooked a Chinese meal from A to Z. They were suprised, but not sure if positively or not 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you! Very honored of to hear some of your story, Heidi! @Michelle Pelham, I think you’ll really enjoy getting to know Heidi through her writing. I have absolutely loved the conversations on this thread. Thanks again for joining us!
Victoria sent me over here. 🙏🙏🙏 My name's Lani and I'm a Chinese Thai Polynesian American who has been living overseas since 2009. Currently, I'm in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
It's meant to be funny and because it was an early post, hasn't received the love I believe it deserves. Looking forward to getting to know all of you, xo
Thank you so much for introducing yourself! I appreciate you stopping by here. We've had some fun conversations. I saw Victoria had tagged you and I followed you and read some of your posts. I don't think I saw that one yet, but I will enjoy reading it. Wow, you have a fun mixture. I am delighted to meet you here, and really enjoyed what I had the chance to read on your Substack yesterday. I taught at a medical college in China in my twenties, and I live in Oregon now, where I grew up. When I returned from China, I worked with international students (college age) for quite a few years before getting my Masters in the counseling field. I'm married now, and still enjoy keeping in touch with close friends from China, Japan and other places around the globe. How fun that you can work overseas still and experience life in different parts of the world. That's a gift to have that opportunity. I'll go read that post you shared the link to--thank you! Very glad to connect, Lani!
Thank you, Susan. You're so generous 🙏 And that's quite the story yourself having taught in China at a medical school! I lived in Eugene and Portland Oregon for about six years when I was training and teaching as a Waldorf teacher!
Wow, that's fun that you spent almost 6 years in Oregon. That's really cool that you trained and taught as a Waldorf teacher. I taught for the community college here in ESL and for a language school for international students, and I team taught in the Rehab Counseling Program for WOU a bit. I always taught adults, but I do enjoy kids. Are you teaching now in Cambodia? I loved your BINGO! I restacked it. Very fun!
Hi everyone! 👋
Thanks for tagging me. 😊
I’m half Japanese, half kiwi (New Zealander).
I was lucky enough we had Japanese in the home growing up, but I got a bit lazy and started answering in English and now I’m paying the price. Luckily my kiwi husband can speak Japanese and in fact, better than me.🙈
I lived in Japan when I was a kid and have been back many times. I love my heritage, I love that I have a Japanese name.
My mum is an amazing cook, but I was always part of her assembly line, doing parts of the jobs, but never the full thing. Now my kids are begging me to get the recipes. I tried this once, flew up to learn kaarage and other meals. I took my tripod so I could record it and pass it along to everyone. When I arrived, she had already started and had the chicken marinating already?!? (My mum is very efficient)
I will try again! 😆
Thank you, Mika! Good incentive to visit Mom again 🥰. What a rich heritage. Two islands on two different hemispheres. Do you live in New Zealand now? I had a kiwi flat mate in Hong Kong during my short time there and also got to know some Aussies. Great people.
I have enjoyed your Substack and like your creativity and gracious way of connecting other writers. How fun that you’re married to a kiwi and have a kiwi dad.
I am dreaming of visiting Australia and hoping perhaps this winter (your summer?) will work out. My close Chinese friend married an American and they ended up working and living in Australia. They live on the beach. I figure I need to travel while it is still possible with my health. And I would so enjoy seeing her and her family. Her mum from China is living with them. When I lived in China, her parents lived very near me on the medical college campus. Her mother worried I wasn’t figuring out the little single propane burner kitchen and made me chicken hundun (wanton soup) which makes my mouth water thinking about this love her daughter delivered to my apartment, steaming hot and so delicious. Sometimes I managed to fix great meals but sometimes I flopped. Back then the open air market in a back alley served as our “grocery store” and I ate a lot of tofu because the meat hung in the sun, or we had to kill our own chickens. I wasn’t really set up to butcher chickens on my balcony! Also the pressed ducks my friends brought back hung on my balcony after they visited the down coat factory!
My mom in Oregon was a phenomenal cook. But I understand your point about her marinating the meat earlier! If I cooked and baked like my mom l would be portly, so I cook differently. Besides I don’t have the energy to be as amazing in the kitchen as my mom was. I have MS so my husband kindly helps cook. Plus mom always milked her Jersey cow twice a day, grew all of the vegetables (I still enjoy gardening) and we had fresh fruit on our farm. We raised our own beef, pork, chickens for eggs etc. The whipped cream and butter came from our milk cow Sunshine. I learned how to cook some great Asian dishes while in China but also from Asian renters and roommates. A big takeaway is how to keep the stir fry veggies vivid green and fresh. Cooking together is such a wonderful way to connect, and Chinese friends here still love to make jaotzi together. I can make jaotzi from scratch though it’s a lot of work. Fun as a community building event. My first college roommate was Japanese and she wants us to visit. I hope my husband and I can do so in a few years. She’s a great cook. We love Japanese food.
Happy cooking, Mika! Happy to connect here.
Blessings, Sue
I'm loving your stories, Sue.
Thank you, Michelle. So glad that we connected recently. I’ve really loved hearing from different people on this thread and discovering new writers that I hadn’t yet come across. Very happy to get to know you!!
What a beautiful photo, Susan, and thank you for the mention. Here's a directory I'm putting together of Asian writers, if you're interested in finding more!
https://asianstack.substack.com/s/directory
Awesome, thank you so much Tiffany! I appreciate that link to your directory. I have really loved reading your work and getting to know you a bit in recent months.
I really appreciate you too, Susan. You seem like someone I'd like to meet with in person and have long conversations with over tea.
I feel the same way, Tiffany. As they always said in Jiangxi Province, "warmly welcome you!" I hope we'll have that opportunity someday.
Hope so!
By the way, I love your directory. If anyone I mentioned here who is an Asian writer isn't on it, I suppose you'd be glad to hear from them, too? It's great, thank you.
Yes! I'd encourage them to fill out the form so I can add them.
Thanks, Susan and hello Michelle! Here is the link to the About page of my Substack - https://immigrantsjourney.substack.com/about
Please feel free to browse, and reach out via either comment or DM if you have any particular questions for me. Looking forward to connecting with you!
Thank you, Yi Xue!
Hi Susan, How's your eye doing? I hope you're managing. Sending some hugs.
Thank you for this discussion thread. A beautiful photo, and prawn dumplings! Now I'm hungry.
Hi, I'm Victoria - my publication/website is Carer Mentor: Empathy & Inspiration. It offers 'Heartfelt empathy for Caregivers. A hub of practical tools, resources, and expert insights. A portal of hope.'
https://www.carermentor.com/
I'm on a mission to shift the narrative around caregiving and support carers, in the acts of giving care but even more importantly to support caregivers themselves. You'll see resources to reflect several facets of caregiving.
The first half of this year has been dedicated to Emotional Agility, understanding emotions & dispelling/busting emotion 'myths.' I leverage research/expert's work.
My grandparents were born in China, my parents were born in Malaysia and I was born here in the UK. I've studied/worked/lived through 18 relocations, 10 countries, 4 companies and resigned from corporate in 2017
I'll share the thread with a few others I know.
Susan - here's Cissy Hu's elevating AAPI voices article: https://www.moremyself.xyz/p/aapi-voices
The very fact your discussion thread is traversing all time zones is quite the insight in itself ;-) 🌏 🤗
Thanks for your wonderful response, Victoria! You’re a rich resource and do a fantastic job with your articles and work with the caregiving community. And you have lived out filial piety in a profound way. Your background and life are so interesting. I can say you’ve been a great encouragement to me simply by your deep empathy and kindness. Living with multiple sclerosis myself and also caring for elders at times has been a challenge. Thanks for asking about my eye. The blood in the vitreous humor is still messing up vision but they did laser on retinal tear. I am praying I can see better for our cruise to Alaska next month!! Thanks for all you do. I truly appreciate you!!
I'm glad to hear that at least some repair was done on your eye, but I can imagine it must be very frustrating and as you said in your video, destabilising for your MS.
There is a MUCH deeper and longer discussion we shall have through future articles on identity. I've forged (literally) an identity - in the words of Brené Brown & Susan David- to enable me to be wholeheartedly me.
I've never felt I belonged anywhere/to anything..perhaps cosmopolitan or global citizen comes close, and a multi-hyphenated British-Chinese.
However, I resonated strongly with Brené's 'Braving the Wilderness' book & she introduced me to Maya Angelou's statement: 'You are only free when you realize you belong no place—you belong every place—no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great,” Angelou told Bill Moyers in a 1973 interview. (27 Jun 2017).
So, I've cultivated & evolved my sense of identity to be able to stand in the 'Wilderness'. Especially triggered by my shift from Corporate to Carer.
I don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin - my second language is French.
So, forgive me for somewhat rejecting your 'filial piety' words - of course, I appreciate your sentiment and why you generously said this, and your kindness is heartwarming, but it feels like a misnomer for me, in terms of how I define myself-my identity.
In fact, my head-heart-gut aligned decision to resign from my 'big job' was driven equally by my own needs as it was for the love of my parents...duty/respect/elders etc didn't figure in my thoughts.
I've always felt that I stand in a doorway - feet straddling many intersections and embracing everything...or perhaps I feel that I am the doorway, translating the view either side... ;-) I feel the need to write the article soon, but the caregiving mission is greater than sharing more personal reflections right now..it'll be soonish tho ;-)
Oh thank you, Victoria for explaining more about your own process. Identity is so central to our healing and growth regardless of cultural background. I apologize if that phrase was offensive. It was just on my mind as I read an article by a Chinese writer that very tenderly explained what it meant to her as she reframed the idea. I hope someday we can meet or visit. Your story intrigues me. I wrote an early post on belonging and identity inspired by a tulip!! Best wishes to you and I love hearing your thoughts.
I'm happy to share, Susan - no offence taken! I felt comfortable sharing. I shared similar thoughts with Louisa re. Diaspora. My story is a long one. Thank you for being you!
I’m glad. These conversations interest me very much. Probably my decision to later become a counselor had it’s roots in my time first in China listening to traumatic stories of those impacted by Cultural Revolution and other painful eras. Looking forward to knowing your experiences and thoughts more over time. I have been very blessed by our connection. Thanks for your compassion and empathy. Few people truly get it!!
You're very welcome, Susan! Thank you. Echoing back your own empathy & compassion...
Victoria, please write the article. I am very interested as I've sometimes felt like somewhat of a hybrid myself. In college, at first the Chinese Christian club did not want to accept me (brown Chinese from Trinidad) and another brown student from Guam. Eventually, they decided to accept us. Plus there is the generational gap between my parents, grandparents and I. And so many cultural differences. How I've phrased the question to myself and others is: How do you define "Home"? I've had friends who have lived overseas as missionaries in different parts of the world and they answer the question differently. I'd like to write about it one day but perhaps someone here can start a podcast conversation and we can bring our comments to it???
Oooh, I really like hearing you discuss this topic, Michelle, and would also enjoy reading Victoria's article and thoughts on these themes when time allows. I actually really appreciate hearing from all of you on these issues. I know your comment is directed to Victoria, and it's really a different thing, but I like to think about what it's like to experience life in a place where we are different, and what those of you from very diverse backgrounds and cultures have experienced, and the things that have shaped your ideas and self concept and identity.
So in a different way, I remember being very much the minority in a large city in China. When we'd go out, people back then would shout out Mandarin words for "Foreign Devil" or "Big Nose" as we walked or biked past. I didn't really take that personally, but it made me much more aware of how people feel as they adapt in a culture and population that look very different from themselves. I'll always remember two very touching interactions. I sat on a park bench in China once, and a women I'd never seen before shyly came up to the bench and sat down. She kept inching closer. She really wanted to see if my hair (lighter brown) felt differently from hers and finally got up the courage to ask if she could check that out. It was something of a unique moment. We couldn't converse in detail because of the language barrier, but our few words and shared humanity stayed with me.
Another close Chinese friend used to spend a lot of time at my apartment. She was a fellow teacher in our English Department at the medical college. One day she worked up the courage to ask if she could touch the bridge of my nose, and she was just really curious about the shape of our noses and how different we were. Again, I found her child-like wonder and question sweet.
Michelle, I really like your question of how people define Home. It's funny, but though I loved my early years on a farm in Oregon, I felt so at home in China, among my students. I think sometimes we have a place or another country that feels like home to us, maybe even more than where we were born. Do you think that has to do with a sense of belonging and acceptance maybe? I felt like I was loved and accepted by my students in China fully, and I had my own clear identity (and loved teaching so much) for the first time in my life. Belonging plays into it as well. I had lived among literally several thousand cousins/relatives in our rural area of Oregon growing up, and sometimes didn't feel like I was really known as an individual. Teachers would mix up our names and often call me by a cousin's name. But in China, we were maybe 11 foreigners in a city of at least a million or several million. I didn't mind not fitting in, but I understood the feeling of being a minority in a new way. I also wonder how your experience as a Christian not initially feeling accepted by the Chinese Christian club felt to you in terms of your identity and even your faith. I love knowing that in Christ, we are sisters and I am richer for having brothers and sisters with different skin colors and experiences.
I remember my Chinese students in China expressing a bit of wonder and even fear about the darker skinned people they had rarely encountered from Africa. Many of them had simply had never seen black people until later in life.
On a different note, I had to laugh when one of my Chinese friends back then asked me how I would feel if I had to work with someone who was very overweight (he used the Chinese word "peng" and gestured). I asked him why he wanted to know, and he said he felt worried about where he'd be able to stand in a small room with a heavy coworker. Again, almost no one in that city had a weight issue back then. So they just had no concept. Once a close Chinese friend invited me to her wedding in another province of China. I had to go to the very crowded train station and she told me to meet a Chinese man who was kind of fat. This mystery man would accompany me to buy my tickets on ride on the train with me to the wedding several hours away. I can imagine her amusement. Of course, the man had maybe 5-10 extra pounds and was still no at all overweight, and I'd never find this mysterious stranger in the big crowd of people teeming around the station. She knew he would find me easily and come up to me, so that's what happened.
I love to read stories that span generations of immigrants and talk about these things as people adapt to life in another country. While we are Swiss immigrants to the US on my dad's side of the family, I still liked thinking about these things, too.
On my family farm, we had a strawberry field. We had people come to pick the strawberries from so many different countries, so that was very delightful to me as a kid. I listened the Russian language, Spanish speakers, and Cambodian and Lao, and many other people. I just loved meeting these immigrants and picking strawberries together. I think I first developed a love for various cultures and people in that strawberry field.
But I think that the experience of immigrants in their formative years can be so different. The cultural pressures and way they experience belonging or standing out at school is a factor, too. I have been close friends with Chinese immigrants to the US when they had only recently arrive and now years later watched as they have raised their kids who are the next generation, ABC's.
So I truly love hearing from you and others about your experience and even struggles. Thank you, Michelle. I love your idea of someone doing a podcast or some kind of forum where various views and experiences are explored and expressed!
Thanks for tagging me on this post Victoria! I've been reading through all the comments and can definitely relate. My mother is Chinese but she grew up in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada. My father is white but was adopted by a Choctaw woman. So I can relate deeply to feeling in between worlds and cultures and having a longing for a sense of home. I now live in New Zealand and am feeling ever father away from home as all of my family is still in North America.
I love that quote from Maya Angelou and was both challenged and enamored by it while reading Braving the Wilderness. While I have a background in Physiotherapy and Positive Psychology, I am currently certifying as a Feminine Embodiment Coach and have found the embodiment practices to be a beautiful way of coming home to myself. It feels like I am gathering up all the parts of me and welcoming them home.
Loving this post and these comments, it feels like a doorway into connection with others who feel similarly. Thanks Susan for writing this!
Robin Michelle, thank you so much for joining us! Wow, your background is fascinating to me. I think your father having been adopted by a Choctaw woman adds a really interesting dimension. And your mom being Chinese and growing up in the Philippines but immigrating to Canada does as well. It’s cool that you became a physiotherapist and studied positive psychology. I originally studied physical therapy in the US but didn’t realize I had multiple sclerosis, so I ended up leaving the graduate program midway through due to health sadly. But I later became a counselor (rehabilitation field initially then other areas). I am glad you are finding ways to come home to yourself. Very delighted to hear your story. Again, thank you for joining the conversation. I have loved hearing from all of you!
Thanks Susan, yes so many layers and dimensions. Your story sounds fascinating as well and I’m glad you started this conversation!
I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing from so many of you. Thank you for joining us!!
Very welcome, Robin! Thank you for sharing your background and reflections. These are several rich cultures across diverse countries. ( I lived in Montreal for over a year—one of my favourite cities!). Your journey to today with the Feminine Embodiment Coaching must be quite a memoir.
Victoria, thanks for sharing this with Robin and others. I ordered a copy of the book you mentioned on wilderness and look forward to reading it. Thank you for that recommendation.
very welcome Susan! have a great day
Thanks Victoria, it’s certainly on ongoing journey of feeling in between cultures. I am finding the embodiment work deeply healing and liberating ☺️
So glad to hear you are finding a sense of freedom and healing in this way, Robin. Really appreciate you sharing some of your story here.
https://open.substack.com/pub/susankuenzi/p/belonging-and-identity?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios
Also thanks for sharing Cissy Hu’s link. That looks like a treasure and very interesting insights. Wow! Thanks!!
Hello Susan, what beautiful photos you have shared! I am from Singapore, and this is my substack:
https://willyealsogoaway.substack.com/
Thanks,
Max
Thank you, Max. I really enjoy photography, and have loved seeing some of the beauty Asia has to offer. I haven't ever made it to Singapore but my friends said it is an amazing country. Thank you for sharing your link and for responding. Much appreciated!
Susan, thank you so much for mentioning me and other writers with Asian backgrounds. It's such a great pleasure to get to know you, and look forward to connecting with you again after my absence. I also look forward to visiting the other writers you mentioned here, and the very interesting conversations in your comment section. xo
P.S. You're so lucky to have visited the Yangshuo Mountain. I have never been there. What a beautiful picture!
My pleasure, Louisa. I had always wanted to visit the Guilin area and finally did in 2011. Such a gorgeous area. I hope you can make it someday.
I hope so too!
@Louisa, Have you seen the movie Sight? If not I hope you can. This true story was so well done and starts out in China prior to Cultural Revolution. My post called Sight talks about this story and some of the things you and I discussed as well.
No, Susan, I haven't seen it. But I'd like to see it. I'll read your post about it and try to find the film. It reminds me of a Taiwanese film about a blind pianist and a dancer becoming friends and how they help each other. I don't remember the English name but if you're interested I'll look it up.
Oh, yes I would love to know the name of that film. Sight was produced by Angel Studios and is in theaters for a limited time. I found the doctor’s clinic in the US and am listening to his autobiography on Audible.
Hiya, and thanks Susan for creating this thread. And what a beautiful picture taken at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat!
I am originally from the UK, but have lived in Asia for nearly ten years. I am now based in Hong Kong. Scrolling down, I recognise a number of names and newsletters, so it is great to connect here too. And I am looking forward to exploring other writer's work too :)
Ps - the dumplings look delicious.
PS, I had forgotten those were shrimp dumplings. My friend from Guangzhou insisted she get some for us, and they were so delicious.
Thanks for responding, Sarah. Have you stayed at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat? We just loved it there...very special place and the hospitality and experience was so memorable. A fairly similar kind of place that I loved in Yunnan Province in 2018 was the Linden Centre in the village of Xizhou (near Dali). Both were such wonderful places to stay, but also had fantastic staff, great food, and cultural connections.
A wonderful article, Susan. Sure is a journey down some great corners of the world. Thanks for the tag. Although admittedly, it is really making me hungry. 😋
Haha. Yeah. I get hungry sometimes just thinking about certain dishes.
Hi Susan, what a fun thread! I'm here because of Mika's comment on your note. 📝 😊
I'm Japanese American. My mom is from Tokyo, and her whole side of the family lives in Japan. Growing up, I was lucky enough to visit my grandparents every year because my dad worked for the airlines. (Such a gift!) I'm actually working on a post right now detailing my experience of briefly attending my mom's elementary school. She and I were working through questions yesterday trying to make sure we had the facts right.
The name of my newsletter, Nōto, comes from the Japanese word for notebook. 📒 I cherished putting these two posts together:
Missed in translation:
erikatovi.substack.com/p/missed-in-translation
The joys of Japanese children's books:
erikatovi.substack.com/p/the-joys-of-japanese-childrens-books
Have you had the chance to visit Japan? It's so beautiful. Looking forward to checking out these other names I see here!
Erika, thank you so much for sharing about your life and background a bit, and I'm excited to read your work soon. I love that name, and can hear my former Japanese students and my first roommates in college were Japanese--I can hear them saying Nōto, I love that name! I'm hoping that my husband and I can make a trip to Japan after he retires in a couple of years. My friend Tomoko has wanted us to come for a long time. I worked in China a few years earlier in life and have made a few return trips (for about 3.5 weeks at a time), but I've never been to any other countries in the region or Japan. It's still something I'd love to do. I've also not visited Europe or Australia. I kind of hope to go visit a close Chinese friend in Australia this winter. But Japan is definitely on our radar. I love that your dad's airline job allowed you to visit grandparents in Japan every year. What a gift! I am excited to read the articles you shared. Again, delighted to 'meet you' here!! Thanks, Erika!
Thank you for the mention, Susan! It's amazing that we can meet on this platform here, without which we probably wouldn't have had a chance to connect. Looking forward to hearing more of your stories in the future!
I looked over my Substack posts and found some essays I wrote that mentioned my China experiences. Here's one link: https://open.substack.com/pub/susankuenzi/p/what-motivates-you-to-finish-your?r=22wfou&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank you, Clare. That’s true! I really appreciate Substack and the fun people we can meet here. Your articles about cultural trends have been memorable to me. Thanks!
Hey Susan, thanks for remembering me! I'll come back to read this calmly when I have a moment but I didn't wanna forget to thank you! I'll be back!
You’re very welcome, Han. Take your time. Hope you are doing well.
Thank you, Sue. This is wonderful and I am grateful for these other connections. One of the next articles I'd like to write about is my Dad's favorite soup. Normally made with a boiled chicken, green onions, and soy sauce when I was growing up (I'm the oldest child), he later added cilantro, tomato, and ginger to make it even more delicious. I'll be sharing that recipe (and memory) next. Thanks for this again, Sue. It's another connection to my heritage. (My mother's name is Chang. Dad's name is/was Lowi-Teng. While I'm told that Chang is the one of the four most common names in China, we've never been able to connect with/track down family on the Lowi-Teng side. Share if you have come across anyone by that name.)
Oh, you’re welcome, Michelle. I look forward to reading about your Dad’s favorite soup. I loved a simple soup my Taiwanese friend made for me when I was not feeling well. It had ginger, shitake mushrooms, green onions, chicken and soy sauce too. I would also love to learn to make a good congee like they sometimes served for breakfast. I also like egg and tomato soup which also had onions. Very delicious.
I almost forgot. His soup also had pak chow in it and he called it pak-chum-kai with soup, sticky rice, pak chow, and chicken.
Were your parents Cantonese speakers?
Neither of them learned the language enough to speak it, but we inherited names for foods in different languages. (One grandfather was from Singapore and the other, Hong Kong.) I've heard the numbers in Chinese, plus words for "thank you" and "grandfather." Are these Cantonese terms: shay-shay-nee and yay-yay?
Ah, so your parents grew up in the US? Thank you in Mandarin is like what you said. I learned to speak/understand enough Mandarin to survive and know only a few words in Cantonese. I would have enjoyed taking more Mandarin but just learned from tutors mainly. There are many local dialects which complicates learning. My dad’s parents were both of Swiss background, so they still spoke a dialect of German sometimes. I enjoy language and learning family history and stories.
Hallo everyone,
may I introduce myself?
I just wrote a comment to a post by Lani, but I think it partially belongs here:
*Born in Italy, left my country at 19 and since then I mostly lived abroad, except for the 4 years I went back to study Chinese at the university.
My experience of China is definitively different from hyphenated Asian: I was raised with an Italian culture, became adult in a European one. And yet, even when I was a child I felt a connection with China, and even though the story was one of love and hate, Chinese culture had and still has a role in my life. I feel more connected with a Chinese person, hyphenated or not, than with my fellow Italians.
On the other hand, there are many similarities between Chinese and Italian culture, maybe this is what allowed me to understand the culture better, I don't know. The importance of families and expectations parents have towards their children are two common traits between China and Italy.*
I now live in Berlin, I seldom have the opportunity to speak Chinese thus I resort to listening to a couple of podcasts to keep at least my comprehension going. In this phase of my life the most significant link to China is that I am a qigong teacher and I am studying Traditional Chinese Medicine. After a rupture with China in 2007, I decided to take the things I liked and leave the rest. That the privilege of not having blood ties with China.
Looking forward to read more from this community (time allowing!).
My substack, where I also write micro stories, is here: https://lauca.substack.com/
PS I just made some Chinese dumplings yesterday, they do not look so nice but I am sure they will be delicious. And in my freezer a large bag of chicken feet is waiting for me to find the time to prepare some Feng Zhao Cantonese style...I only cooked them once many years ago when I lived in Brussels, when I invited three Chinese friends and cooked a Chinese meal from A to Z. They were suprised, but not sure if positively or not 🤣🤣🤣
Fantastic, Lauca! I loved making potstickers with my friends at various times over the years. Very special community bonding process.
I wrote an article about my TCM doctor in China but haven’t yet published it here. I look forward to learning more about your background and skills.
I am excited to meet you here and to read some of your work. I love hearing your story snd background. Thank you!!
Who am I? 🇦🇺🇭🇰
I am from a kingdom forged by refugees—fleeing homelands with bruised hearts, empty stomachs, and pockets full of dreams.
I am from women, strong but silent: single mothers, cycle breakers, r e b e l s, survivors.
I am from striving, saving face, debt and what’s deserved—never accepting gifts that I haven’t stacked and earned.
I am a second-generation Asian Australian woman, and a first-generation Christian woman, wife and mother.
I am an eldest daughter.
I am a walking paradox: playful but deep, loud but hesitant, rebellious but loyal, expressive but guarded, self-reliant but needy.
I am a sentimentalist, nostalgist, and grieving optimist.
I am a new creation but a work in progress.
I am in Christ (alone).
—
🙋🏻♀️I’m Heidi, an Asian Australian writer based in Brisbane. Let’s connect at https://heiditaiwrites.substack.com/
Thank you! Very honored of to hear some of your story, Heidi! @Michelle Pelham, I think you’ll really enjoy getting to know Heidi through her writing. I have absolutely loved the conversations on this thread. Thanks again for joining us!
Thank you for bringing so many of us together and for amplifying our voices!
Hello Susan,
Victoria sent me over here. 🙏🙏🙏 My name's Lani and I'm a Chinese Thai Polynesian American who has been living overseas since 2009. Currently, I'm in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
I've been on Substack for about six months, but one of my first posts was called First Generation Asian American BINGO. https://lanivcox.substack.com/p/first-generation-asian-american-bingo
It's meant to be funny and because it was an early post, hasn't received the love I believe it deserves. Looking forward to getting to know all of you, xo
Thank you so much for introducing yourself! I appreciate you stopping by here. We've had some fun conversations. I saw Victoria had tagged you and I followed you and read some of your posts. I don't think I saw that one yet, but I will enjoy reading it. Wow, you have a fun mixture. I am delighted to meet you here, and really enjoyed what I had the chance to read on your Substack yesterday. I taught at a medical college in China in my twenties, and I live in Oregon now, where I grew up. When I returned from China, I worked with international students (college age) for quite a few years before getting my Masters in the counseling field. I'm married now, and still enjoy keeping in touch with close friends from China, Japan and other places around the globe. How fun that you can work overseas still and experience life in different parts of the world. That's a gift to have that opportunity. I'll go read that post you shared the link to--thank you! Very glad to connect, Lani!
Thank you, Susan. You're so generous 🙏 And that's quite the story yourself having taught in China at a medical school! I lived in Eugene and Portland Oregon for about six years when I was training and teaching as a Waldorf teacher!
Wow, that's fun that you spent almost 6 years in Oregon. That's really cool that you trained and taught as a Waldorf teacher. I taught for the community college here in ESL and for a language school for international students, and I team taught in the Rehab Counseling Program for WOU a bit. I always taught adults, but I do enjoy kids. Are you teaching now in Cambodia? I loved your BINGO! I restacked it. Very fun!
Yes, I’m teaching in Cambo. And thanks for the restack! xo
You're welcome. Thanks for interacting. I hope you have a good week, Lani!
https://open.substack.com/pub/paletteofthoughts/p/sticky-rice-dumpling-great-wall?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios. I want to add Bree to the thread. Fun article here.
https://substack.com/@hope2rise/note/c-59282503?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action. So happy that Robin joined us. Her writing is truly lovely.
I loved this article by Kristin Wong. https://open.substack.com/pub/untranslatable/p/wabi-sabi-finding-beauty-in-the-unfinished?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios
Here’s a link to a really well written article by Clare: https://open.substack.com/pub/slowburnliving/p/tradwives-modern-chinese-malaise?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios
"That the birds fly overhead, this you cannot stop. That they build a nest in your hair, this you can prevent." --Chinese Proverb.
Another proverb was: He is a brave man who eats crab for the first time.
I loved how in China the common greeting translates as: Have you eaten yet?
Here’s a link to an article about a spam text that prompted some memories: https://open.substack.com/pub/susankuenzi/p/a-mysterious-text-asking-about-eating?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios
@clare chai, here’s another of my posts that talks about my China experience. https://open.substack.com/pub/susankuenzi/p/inspiration-and-overcoming-obstacles?r=22wfou&utm_medium=ios
Here's an article I found through Tiffany Chu's directory that I really enjoyed: https://open.substack.com/pub/spiceroutestories/p/conversations-with-an-hoang-creating?r=22wfou&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I really enjoyed this article today: https://open.substack.com/pub/thecharacterproject/p/xiao-shun-window-panes-in-a-korean?r=22wfou&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web