PinnedThe Bloody Grief of Periods and Everything In BetweenReaders, be gentle as you go, and call me in with love for the things I get wrong. — The red bloomed differently this time. Staring down at my underwear, I felt my heart sink at another life not possible this month, an ending that never began. My periods had always been a thing of resentment and contradictions, now a grief in waiting. As a teenager, I dreaded the…Grief11 min read
Pinnedthe atlanta shooting is not a single trauma, but a series of big and small traumas compoundingIf you’re not an Asian women, I want you to see how intensely some of us are experiencing the murders of the six Asian women in Atlanta this past week (I’ve since removed their names as some of their family members do not want names publicly shared). …Stopasianhate5 min read
Published in transgressions: a series of becoming·Pinnedwhat comes after: of space enougha love letter to women of color in eight parts — 1. in 1993, Toni Morrison once said, Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What is it to have no home in this place. To be set…Women Of Color7 min read
Published in transgressions: a series of becoming·Updated Jun 14, 2021on the pleasures of bloody, ordinary, and mundane things in liberation¹This list is jointly written by Minjung Pai and Connie Ni Chiu on the unqualified pleasures and joys of being two women of color together, a list of musings on their bloody periods, nakedness, obedience, emotions, fights, cellulites, and ripening. …Pleasure6 min read
Jun 10, 2020The Life and Love of 葉長青 (1934–2020)Our grandpa’s name is 葉長青, a name I only recently discovered as I’ve always lovingly called him 公公. 公公 lived a life bigger than any of us could have ever imagined or hoped for. And even as we gather here today, bearing witness to his love and legacy, we find…10 min read
Jun 18, 2015firefly feetPhoto by Mimi Oh: http://meimats.tumblr.com/ firefly feet she walked with a limp in her [soles] souls, tipping each bruised toe to tiptoe across tired lands, kissing dirt soft so her feet never crushed too many broken bodies lighted by fire and fireflies my mother never ran the way feet take flight uprooting bodies trading laos…Poem2 min read
Published in Morning Light·Jun 25, 2014look | lōōk |verb. direct one’s gaze toward someone or something or in a specified direction. — Photo of grandmah taken by Mimi Oh (http://thisisohh.tumblr.com). Oh, that’s what I look like when I look at you. I’ve always wondered what I look like when I look at you, what my eyes say when we hold hands through eyesight, staring into the vast worlds that occupy each of…5 min read
Jun 3, 2014if i tell you i love, will you stay a love letter to my grandpah — i was the only girl you ever carried on your back. and last week when mom told me you had six-months-to-a-year i melted into your back wrapped my fingers around your liver so i could find your cancer and pull it into myself. but i think i shrank into myself…3 min read
May 28, 2014second time cancersThe end of my gramp’s remission and how we held each other together. — Walking home after grabbing beers with a colleague I never talked to during my masters program, after a good time of laughter and discovery and complaints about our alma mater and an awkward let’s do this again hug, I pulled out my phone and dialed my mom’s number. Hello? Hi…6 min read