What Bruce Lee’s Films Taught Me About Writing My Mother’s Voice
I know by worrying about a room of mostly white readers I undermine myself, but it’s become instinct. And, honestly, I just get tired.
It’s nighttime in Taipei. Blinking store signs linger in my vision as spots and blurs. My mom drives a little too fast and jagged, making me car sick. I try to hide it and my mom tries even harder to talk to me. “Okay,” she says, “Pronounce it again for me.”
Bruce Lee on the set of a movie, weaving an act of translation into his performance, is what I imagine now while writing about my mom.
Isabelle was raised in Taipei and Toronto, but is now based mostly in New York. She’s an undergrad at The New School and a recent VONA alum.
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