“One day we will have a chance to create and critique freely and think only of art, and not of dying.” — It’s been a hard year for Asian Americans. U.S.-China trade tension and racist scapegoating over the Covid pandemic has led to a sharp spike in anti-Asian sentiments in this country. In addition to the microaggressions we have always lived with, there are now more hostile confrontations and violent attacks. Asian…

My parents groomed me to be a model minority. It kept me from being an ally. — When my high school classmate Regina Lee* was 17, she gave a presentation in U.S. history class on the topic of why affirmative action enables “reverse racism” that punishes Asians for being academically overachieving. I found this out recently after reconnecting with Regina since I became “extremely online” while under…

Frankie Huang evacuated Shanghai and moved to the U.S. to live with her husband’s New England parents. Here’s how it’s going. — I met my in-laws for the first time just a couple days before I tied the knot with my husband five years ago. I remember being a little nervous about making a good impression, but I’ve been charming the hell out of friends’ parents since I could string a sentence…

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with rom coms, though these days it’s mostly hate. Hate for the insultingly unimaginative, overly engineered potpourri of generic tropes studios spew out each year that try to pass for real stories. My bar isn’t that high, sometimes I just need emotional comfort food…