Kindergarten Dreams and Teenage Realities

Throughout my life, my dad, being an entrepreneur and adventure seeker, has taken business trips to China. My favorite part of his travels was obviously the souvenirs: Hello Kitty earmuffs, plush dolls, fans covered in Chinese calligraphy, even a calculator that spoke Chinese. One time my dad returned with two 旗袍, traditional form-fitting Chinese dresses, for my sister and I. These dresses were made from a red silk-looking fabric with gold embroidery and a few red buttons at the top for an authentic look. As an imaginative and curious child, I would wiggle into my 旗袍 and wrangle my blond curls into matching buns on my 5 year-old head and proceed to dream. I would pretend that I was a little Chinese girl, with help from a few props (i.e. chopsticks and a tea set), despite the fact that my hair was not black and my eyes were not brown.

Another one of those dream-inducing souvenirs was a necklace with a silky, navy-blue chord, jade-like beads, and a metal snake surrounded with milky stone. One of my father’s Chinese correspondents had given him this snake necklace, along with a bunny necklace for my sister, to represent our Chinese zodiac signs. I gleefully wore this necklace to kindergarten despite name-calling and stares. As a little one, I became a different person: a little dragon with the milky stones, a little Chinese girl in her 旗袍, and a 5 year-old cultural addict.

It wasn’t until now that those imaginative experiences manifested into reality.