It’s 2:42 a.m. here in this Massachusetts town. I arrived at 5:30 in the evening, and this is currently the view from the Holiday Inn, one of three hotels in this little pocket of 30,000 people. There’s the flicker of Popeye’s tangerine-orange logo, and the looming hulk of the Showcase Cinemas I grew up going to as a kid – its neon sign now dark, and the entirety of its glass façade eerily …
Personal Life
I Didn’t Go to the Gym For Two Months. Nothing Bad Happened to Me or My Body.
It’s Day 124 since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Hong Kong. And maybe week 15 (or is it 19?) for generalized panic-buying mayhem, mindless scrolling through TikTok videos, and Zoom happy hours – anything to put off the gloomy resignation for our current state of affairs. The days all seem to blend together in one big depressing block of humanity. When you can’t tell your Saturday …
I Didn’t Go to the Gym For Two Months. Nothing Bad Happened to Me or My Body.Read More
ABC in Hong Kong: A Chinese American Story of Language, Loss, and Home
For as long as I can remember, the Asian-American identity had existed in various forms before I’d even known that being an ABC (American-born Chinese) was a thing. It was fed to me in drops and trickles: first through the works of Amy Tan, where I related strongly to her child protagonist Ying-ying St. Clair in the 1992 book The Moon Lady, the story of a headstrong and fairly obnoxious girl who …
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How Not to Have a Colonoscopy: A Harrowing Tale
It all started with WebMD. (Doesn't it always?) Of course, I don't always trust the misguided and doubtful opinions of strangers on the internet. I do like to think that I avoid WebMD most of the time, like a rational person. It's pretty mentally exhausting to conclude that you have polycystic kidney disease when a pimple appears on your chin one morning. Or that the rash on your forearm means …