Why I shifted from advocate to critic — For the longest time, I believed that genuine concern for social progress was inseparable from unwavering support for affirmative action, much like how one needs to balance both sticks to hold a pair of chopsticks. However, this perspective gradually eroded within me in recent years. Perhaps it was the constant…

A choreographed saga by a grand puppeteer — The Exposition A young boy wound his way through the crowd to a small open-air courtyard tucked away in a bustling neighborhood in Wuhan, China. The sun cast a warm halo over the streets as it began to set. Without his two brothers alongside him, the young boy found a…

How platitudes feed the soul and obscure debate — On a rainy day in April 2023, I grabbed major headlines in a highly circulated media outlet in the U.S. Chinese community. The article title proudly blared in Chinese: The Second Generation: “I Stand On the Shoulders of My Predecessors.” The article accurately depicted a momentous day. My father, who…

A family story of China’s failed experiment — My mother remembers exactly the moment when her childhood ended. Life had already fallen apart in China when my mother was born in 1948. …

A call to action to reject DEI rhetoric that tells us otherwise — I listened to an online lecture, whereby the speaker passionately advocated for more diversity and representation in the workplace. More diversity in the Board Room; more diversity in the C suite; more diversity in high places. In making a case for quotas, she proclaimed, “Because you cannot aspire to be…

A Collection of Palatable Stories of Growing Up — There is something about a sizzling bowl of soup that awakens our senses and unlocks the brain’s hippocampus. In fact, evolution has wired humans in such a way so that food often taps into our memory reservoir. Three soups come to mind when I reflect on the road of my…

And other bedtime tales from my son’s lair — “Mommy can you tell me a story of the Big Bad Wolf?” “Sure, honey — the one about the Three Little Pigs?” “No no…not that one. I want a new one.” “A new one? I don’t think I know any new Big Bad Wolf stories.” “Can you make up one…

Lessons from a Costa Rican Coffee Farm — “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it is attached to the rest of the world.” — John Muir, co-founder of the Sierra Club and Father of the National Park System A pickup truck rumbled over the road as a small ball of light illuminated the…

Taking the aggression out of microaggressions “Sometimes people just want to not feel as if they are walking on eggshells, and they want some acknowledgment that life is messy and that all of us, at any given moment, can say things the wrong way, make mistakes.” — President Obama Chug…