My mom brought home some preserved, candied plums. Securely wrapped in three layers of crinkled paper and plastic. They’ve got this brilliant sweet-sour tang that is just the right amount of sugar and acidity to make my teeth tremble. They remind me of the flying olives, she said. What (I…

January 1, 2022. I made my sole New Year’s resolution to watch one movie a week this year. I also thought I might like to try for summer abs, but that’s neither here nor there. Here’s the thing: I love watching movies. I love going to the cinema and being…

When I first met Lorraine in 2018, we were both new hires at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown. We bonded over a burgeoning love of BTS, and the rest, as they say, is borahae. Anyone who gets to know Lorraine quickly learns that she is a…

Recently, I listened to a song. It tied a thread to a bundle of knotted veins beneath my skin and tugged with gentle insistence until they melted into blue and grey. My friend also listened to this song. “What is it that appeals to you?” I thought about it. “It’s…

Words are hard. They are straight lines and soft curves and strange sounds. They say the word ‘bed’ resembles the shape of what it represents. Why do we have so many words? Who gets to create words? There are feelings that words can never express. Language is freeing. Language is limiting. With words, I tell a story. With words, I fail. Are words meant to express or to evoke? A series of words creates meaning in my mind, echoes in my soul, tugs at somewhere just below my ribs. Like an arrangement of sounds, of colours, of single atoms that mean nothing alone but everything when they meet. A knock on the knee and a leg jerks. Pressure on a nerve and the world fades. A word on the page and a synapse sputters awake.

Disclaimer: For the purposes of this piece, I am completely oversimplifying the character of Heathcliff. Please don’t @ me or revoke by BA. As soon as the clock struck midnight on December 1, the holiday movie roll-out commenced. Generally, I try to avoid this cheesy cringe-fest, but there a few…

The river otter found its way into Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden one weekend in mid-November. I found out when I checked Twitter the following Monday and saw a video of the otter and a few reactionary tweets. I still remember my own reaction…

We have a fascination with the ancient. We spend hours in museums marveling at artifacts from a bygone civilization. People pay a fortune for antique furniture, will buy an old cigarette case for no reason other than that it is from another time. …