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Tag Archives: family

My Anglo-American Christmas

27 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

america, books, charles dickens, christmas, cinema, culture, england, family, film, food, harry potter, history, holidays, j. k. rowling, life, memory, movie, music, nostalgia, pop culture, reading, television

vintage christmas.jpg

I am Chinese, my family is small and we are not religious. We don’t do gifts and parties, nor do we transform our home into a tricolour tinsel and cedar wonderland. I never even believed in Santa, thanks to my mother’s casual ‘Santa and magic and stuff are not real, it’s all made up’ when I was very young.

For Christians, Christmas is the birth of Jesus. For the non-religious, it is about Santa, reindeers, and snow. For us, it is a time to eat together: we mark the day celebrated by many with food and family, the pillars of Chinese culture, and I would not have it any other way.

But Christmas itself—be your take on it Christian or capitalist—is not Chinese, no matter how I celebrate it. Christmas in my mind is a kaleidoscope of Anglo-American sights and sounds. Continue reading →

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Little Russian prince

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Beauty

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Tags

baby, Beauty, children, family, life, love, mother, prose, writer, writing

thelittleprince

The most gorgeous little boy came into my workplace today. I was talking to his mother when a blur of blonde swished past her hips; my view was blocked at first by the high counter behind which I stood, but when I brought the catalogue of Christening cakes to her table later, I couldn’t help but take a good look at what I knew would be a child cherubic enough to send Raphael into a frenzy of Sistine proportions.

And he was: his perfectly round little head, platinum under the sun just then, was now strawberry blonde verging on faux ginger as he sat where the light did not reach. Add to that a chubby buttermilk face that was freckle-free and spotless, fresh and soft the way all baby skin are, and add also his impossibly light, fairy-like golden lashes and you almost have the whole picture. Almost; but oh his eyes! Continue reading →

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Ciabatta try these puns, hun!

04 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Conversations

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Tags

comedy, dialogue, family, father's day, humor, jokes, life, pun, writer, writing

Baker-with-Bread

Preface

This batch of freshly baked puns is for anyone who’s ever inflicted a dad joke on me; happy Father’s Day you man-sized child!

 I 

Avid aesthete: [gazes at bright-eyed, raven-haired beauty] Look at her; she’s so damn beautiful. I must shoot her—I need to shoot her!

Companion: [is visibly shocked] Shoot her?! You mean like kill her???  Continue reading →

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