Illustration by Wendy Ma
……………… Sure, I would paint my skin
Into a colorless colour, & I would dye my hair
Wear two blue contacts, & I would even
Go for plastic surgery, but if I really do
I assure you, I will not remove my native village
Accent while speaking this foreign tongue (I began
To imitate like a frog at age nineteen); nor will I
Completely internalize the English syntax &
Aristotelian logic. No, I assure you that I’ll not give up
Watching movies or TV series, reading books
Listening to songs, each in Chinese though I hate them
For being too low & vulgar. I was born to eat dumplings
Doufu, & thus fated to always prefer to speak Mandarin
Though I write in English. I assure you that even if I am
Newly baptized in the currents of science, democracy &
Human rights, I will keep in line with my father’s
Haplogroup just as my sons do. No matter how
We identify ourselves or are identified by others, this is
What I assure you: I will never convert my proto selfhood
…………………………………… Into white Dataism, no, not
……………………………. In the yellowish muscle of my heart
Changming Yuan published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a PhD in English in Canada, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. His publishing achievements include ten Pushcart nominations, eight chapbooks and publications in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) & BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1,639 other poets across 44 countries.
Wendy Ma is an Illustrator and Designer based in Vancouver. Born in China, raised in Tokyo and Vancouver, she developed her interest in sharing her worldview and experiences as a person with cross-cultural background through art. Fluently speaking three languages, she is passionate about communicating emotion through her pieces. She currently works as an illustrator and Designer at IBM. Her work is available at wendy-ma.com