Jay Zhu

When A Surgeon Asks About Chinese Chicken

The first time I had General Tso’s Chicken was in college. Before that, I hadn’t ever heard of it. It was served at Grace’s Café, a mom and pop Chinese restaurant located on Duke University’s central campus that has since closed shop. It was battered, fried, and glazed—in other words, it was something my mom…

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Deborah Wei

Where I’m Really From

I was seven when I first visited Taiwan. My parents referred to the three-month trip as “going back”, a return to the motherland. But for me and my siblings it was a novel experience, journeying to a place we knew only through our parents’ stories and long-distance phone calls. In the beginning, I complained a…

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Quiet Warrior

Thank you, Venus and Serena

I’m sitting here watching the 2017 Australian Open women’s final between Venus and Serena Williams and I’m weeping. Growing up, my father would watch tennis regularly, particularly during the Grand slam tournaments.  I would casually peek up from whatever book that I was reading at the time to observe the matches but never really paid…

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