Apr 10, 2019
Growing Up Without My Mother, I Found Strength in Olympic Skating Heroes
I lost my mother when I was young. So women like Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, and Sasha Cohen taught me about femininity and fierceness.
Looking for a Reflection as the Only Asian Actor in a Production of ‘Mulan’
I felt humiliated singing a song about honor when I could only feel shame. As I stood in yellowface, I had finally fulfilled my quest to become white.
Mar 20, 2019
I Thought Figure Skating Wasn’t for a Girl Like Me
Skating was for graceful girls, pretty girls. Girls with money. Not a girl like me.
Feb 20, 2018
Body Armour: From Gymnastics to Scoliosis
“He traced my spine. It turned out to be curvy, a little snake made of bones.”
Feb 08, 2018
Piano Women: The Artists Who Helped Me Subvert the Music Industry’s Obsession With Categorizing My Body
The day-to-day negotiation I faced as a mixed-race woman made me resist the idea that classifying myself and my body was the only way to get my music heard.
Feb 05, 2018
Seeking the Fairway, But Caught in the Rough: When You’re Not the Golf Prodigy Your Father Hoped You’d Be
“The first set of clubs arrived when I was seven, cotton candy-colored in pink and blue.”
Oct 30, 2017
Swimming to Joy; or: How the Water Saved Me
On inherited traumas and joys in an immigrant family, and swimming as an antidote to despair.
Oct 24, 2017
Running from the Dark
“I run to silence the voices that haunted my brother and sister.”
May 09, 2017
A Bed of Fists: On Playing Soccer in Moscow
“Flying into Putin’s Russia on a tourist visa with my soccer gear hadn’t seemed utterly daft.”
Mar 07, 2017
Dance: On Ballet and Impossible Love
“I am here to learn the language, to learn how it feels in the body to dance.”
Feb 22, 2017
You’ll Never Be Lovelier Than You Are Right Now: On Tennis, Grief, and Social Striving
My ascent matched my mother’s descent.
Dec 06, 2016
Playing the Goon
“Basketball, the game I loved, legitimized a transformation I didn’t welcome.”
Nov 17, 2016
Minor Gains
“You have to require an effort of your muscles that pushes them to the edges of their power.”
Oct 20, 2016
The Surf Cure
Getting diagnosed—and treated—for chronic Lyme disease was an exhausting and endless ordeal. Only one thing helped.
Sep 06, 2016
