
You aren’t authentically Chinese/Taiwanese unless your mother has at some point called you stupid, or as I’ve heard it in Mandarin, bèn (笨). Don’t misinterpret: my parents love me to pieces and today, 30-some odd years later, our relationship couldn’t be stronger. However, I most certainly grew up hearing that word to the point where I recall apologizing humbly to people, “Oh, I’m really not that smart.” If I couldn’t solve a differential equation in under 10 seconds, my mother [...] Continue »