illustration by Azure Gao Near the end of 2019, a coronavirus hit Wuhan, one of the metropolises of China. In the beginning, it was only a handful of cases. However, due to the travel rush of the Lunar New Year, the coronavirus was carried to most provinces and…
You come. You work. You leave. A Story of Modern Exploitation. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services created the American visa system to provide migrants with an opportunity to settle in America. But for many visa holders, this dream has become a false promise. Around 2 million…
The current political climate in India, fueled by the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), remains non-inclusive of the diverse ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds present in the country today. The CAA, passed in December 2019, allows non-Muslim immigrants in India who are originally…
English is not my first language. It’s also not my second language. I grew up listening to and speaking an amalgamation of three different Chinese dialects: Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fujianese. Most children play with dolls and teddy bears – I spent the first four-and-a-half years of my life…
Summers were once my own.Now I spend themChasing someone else’s dreamsTo fulfill unspoken obligations… Unspoken obligations which bind meLike the feet of my ancestorsBack in my homeland China. “Become a doctor,” they say,As if there is no alternative. But didn’t they come to America,The land of the free,In…
Come yonderTo the land of opportunitiesWhere the brave, free, strongDwell.Come yonder, to the land of the westWhere modern, progressive, democratic thoughtPersists. Come hither and experience the hierarchy ofRace and class and sex. Some are born lucky,They are the kingsWho reap rewardsFrom the pawns’Labor of early dawns. The place where…