Kai L. Chan
As I sat with my wife on the stone bench in front of my childhood home in the village of Aawu (鴉湖村), an elderly lady walked by us and without pausing asked if I was the boy from that house who left nearly fifty years ago. She finally stopped fifteen metres away below the arch ...
Kai L. Chan
When I was a child in Maaubou, I caught shrimps from the village pond and carried home fish when it was drained for harvest. When I returned to my village, I strolled by the pond and sought the space in front of the Chan Ancestral Hall where I had played as a child. By the ...
Kai L. Chan
The most vivid memories of my childhood in China are those sharing food with my grandfather. China was poor in the 1970s. Food was scant and meat a luxury. One poignant recollection is when my grandfather cooked game that he caught in the rice fields and shared that tasty meal with me. I also...
Kai L. Chan
As I sat with my wife on the stone bench in front of my childhood home in the village of 𝐴𝑎𝑤𝑢 (鸦湖 = “Crow Lake”), an elderly lady walked by us and without pausing asked if I was the boy from that house who left nearly fifty years ago. She finally stopped 15 metres away ...
Adactio: Journal
This is a collection of short stories by one of Ireland’s best playwrights. I think you can tell that these stories were written by someone who’s at home with the stage. The dialogue really shines. And some of the stories feel like scenes in a play. But that’s no bad thing. If most short stories...
afterhoursacademic
I recently faced some scenarios where I was afraid to put myself (more specifically, my thoughts/ideas) out there because of the fear of appearing stupid (i.e., my ideas not being good enough). I work with some really smart people, so this fear is not unfounded either. I realized that not putting...
afterhoursacademic
Highs[+] Changed jobs and landed at one I like [+] Learning new and interesting things at work (about carbon emissions and LLM training/inference) [+] Learnt to swim [+] Good amount of travel plus quality time with wife (Big Island, Rocky Mountains National Park, Yosemite National Park, Crater...
afterhoursacademic
I did not realize I was being bullied. Largely because I did not understand the concept of online trolling or bullying. This was 2010 after all. I was living in a boys' hostel with common bathrooms and one of my hostel-mates posted a photo on facebook of me coming out of the shower without a...
Kai L. Chan
The Jamaican beef patty is a Toronto staple food. I have many fond memories of how it played a big part of and enriched my life. I grew up during the ‘80s and ‘90s in Leslieville/ South Riverdale before it got gentrified. My go-to place for beef patties back then was Donut Express on the ...
Kai L. Chan
Back in the early 1990s, I used to frequent a coffee shop in East Toronto which was a popular hangout for troublemaker teens. It was a bit of a lawless place. Illegal cigarettes were sold under the counter and there were constant rumours of gambling on site. The air inside was always thick with...
Kai L. Chan
My mum used to collect vegetables tossed in the dumpster of a wholesale produce warehouse near our home. I also used to go to my sister’s workplace, a flower shop in Toronto’s financial district, and collect the carcasses of chickens in a large black plastic bag from an adjacent fried chicken...
Kai L. Chan
My father built the Hsin Kuang chain of restaurants in Toronto. It was a high-profile brand from Hong Kong, and when it was introduced to Toronto in the 1980s it made a splash in the local community. Its flagship location was on 346 Spadina Ave in Toronto’s downtown Chinatown. It was notable for...
india flint
Last month I quite suddenly found myself sliding down a slippery slope...from a year filled with workshops and exhibitions to... nix. Thanks to the invisible scourge (our planet doing a bit of housekeeping) I now have a small fortune in flight credits (that I suspect may never be used) and all...
india flint
Would you like to join me for a workshop? A long one that lasts a month? Want to learn different ways of bundling to let those lovely string marks shine on your work? Want to know to bring saved dried leaves back to life? Would you like to ease into a daily morning writing practice,...
india flint
two places have become available in the only fully residential retreat I will be leading this year, in beautiful Bretagne - Brittany, on the shining edge of the shimmering Atlantic Ocean. this is one of the thin places of the whirled, where it feels as if you could easily step from this one to...