Category: Essay

When the pandemic began, I was still a student. Apart from lockdowns and online classes, I did not feel the direct economic impact of COVID-19.

I still remember the cancellation of the back-to-school notice I received in 2020 before the Chinese New Year holiday and communities getting locked down, forcing us all to stay at home.

Li Hua often hears his parents’ repeated warnings: “You must get a civil service job,” or “Get a public institution job,” or “Get an iron rice bowl.”

One evening in June 2020, not long after Guangzhou had emerged from its first Covid lockdown, I stepped outside my apartment.

The term “COVID-19” may sound less urgent today, with the most intense phase of the pandemic now over five years behind us.

I remember the morning a neighbor in Hangzhou slipped vegetables under my door during lockdown. We’d never spoken

The last time I went to my grandma’s old house was last July, before I was about to go study in Hong Kong.

It’s past 6pm, and the faint, powerless sun has long been swallowed by the endless winter night.

I have always loved food, ever since I was a child in Norway

When I was a kid, I never understood why tofu was always on the table at home.

Almost every dish was sprinkled with shredded ginger, cilantro, chili and garlic

When I was 13, I went on a trip to Guangxi province with my parents.