As a Canadian, I rarely think about how good I have it. Despite the diverse cities, towering mountains, and vast forests that make up my home, it’s usually much easier to view Canada in terms of its deficiencies. Its want of geopolitical strength and lack of significant culture, as well as its mistreatment of Indigenous people and its abuse of tar oil. As COVID-19 vaccine rollouts continue at a snail’s crawl across the world, I’m once again reminded of how rich Canada is.
Much like its southern neighbour, Canada failed to contain the virus by locking down borders and cities…
This is the fifth in a series of ruminations of who/what/where/why I currently am. You can find part one here. In honesty, the fourth one wasn’t that great, so I hid it behind the paywall, but I’m carrying the count onwards.
Lockdown has provided its share of changes, and one blessing their unique combination has accorded me is the ability to perfectly micro-manage my time.
I moved out of my parents house a little over eight months ago, just before the second wave of COVID-19 hit in Toronto. With the rise in cases, working in the office became fully optional…
I played a game in my ninth grade geography class that I still think about sometimes to this day.
When we walked into our seventy-five-minute class, Ms. M told us pair up for an activity. There were between twenty and thirty of us in this class, and so we formed around a dozen groups. Each of the groups was given an envelope, and we were told that within the next half-hour, we had to follow the very simple instructions in the envelope, and each successful pair would obtain a one-percent grade bump to their final grade.
It was a very…
Something, if not someone, comes to mind for everyone when they hear the word “nerd”. It’s not usually a word with positive connotations, and the visualization is usually a dorkily dressed, physically weak, and socially maladroit teenage male. Whereas geeks choose to have an intense interest in some niche subject area, nerds try their best to fit into the standard social molds but can’t. Granted, the differences are numbered and there is a significant overlap between the two groups, but this is the distinction that I want to work with.
This reflection was written entirely from a couple of kilometers in the air; links were inserted in airports upon arrival.
In what are hopefully the final few months of the pandemic, and as I start flying again, I am reminded of the commercial air travel experience. Based on how much I traveled before, I think many would have assumed that I liked taking the plane, but this is decidedly not true. Cramped legs, dry skin, and hangovers were a few afflictions that learned to expect when flying, though I will admit that at least one of these result from my…
Asian Americans aren’t a mono-lid. In previous posts, I’ve commented on the difference between various Asian Americans, in country of origin, in socio-economic class, in generation, and particularly the distinction between what is considered ABC/CBC and fob. The difference between the assimilated and the newly immigrated, those born in the West and those born in Asia. This is even more pronounced when contrasted with Asians in Asia, those who haven’t stepped on the boat, so to speak.
That Asian Americans don’t see themselves strictly Asian and insist on the difference between Asian-Asian and Asian-American is not a cause for concern…
Every time I write about a topic that touches on Asian Americans, I feel compelled to define it. I usually stick to people of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent living in Western society, notably Canada, the United States and Australia, but also other Western countries with a more open immigrant policy. This time, I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and discovered the origin of the term.
The first recorded usage of “Asian American” was in 1968 with the founding of the Asian American Political Alliance at Berkeley. Inspired by the Black Panthers and other civil rights groups, the…
A friend recently asked me what the source of my masculinity was. Not in anger nor in admiration, just to learn more about me. I understood his intentions, but not his question, and we talked briefly about it before switching to another topic. I’ve been thinking about this intermittently over the last week, and still haven’t been able to arrive at an answer.
The question was initially surprising because as a liberal city-slicker, I rarely hear the word “masculinity” without the addendum of “toxic”. When I do think of masculinity, the first thing that comes to mind is an exaggerated…
I’ll admit it. I titled this piece based off a video game character voiceline. I’m certain the quote existed prior to that, but a quick DuckDuckGo search yields no results as to its origin, so I thought maybe the title would not only sound impressive, but also act as clickbait.
If that’s how you chanced upon this post, I extend my apologies. “Inexorable” is a word which here means, “relentless and unalterable”, very much like how we perceived the behaviour of time in our lives. …
My mother tongue is Chinese. Or at least I think it is right now. As someone who primarily identifies with the second generation immigrant cohort, my Chinese ability and use was eclipsed by English from a young age, the gap only widening over time. It feels like cheating to put select “native speaker” as my Chinese level when applying for a job, knowing that it’s not a good characterization of my competence, but I do so anyways.
For census purposes, the Canadian Government defines mother tongue as “the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the…
