Information
Mao-Mi the Nazzy
Meili
Legacy Name: Meili
The Custom Glade Neela
Owner: Tribe
Age: 10 years, 6 months, 5 days
Born: September 22nd, 2013
Adopted: 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Adopted: January 11th, 2022
Statistics
- Level: 241
- Strength: 602
- Defense: 602
- Speed: 599
- Health: 604
- HP: 560/604
- Intelligence: 270
- Books Read: 270
- Food Eaten: 0
- Job: Unemployed
profile template (c) helix (get it)
template edited by Tribe, spacemage, OCEANE
story by Tribe
background courtesy of Unsplash user Alex Ferdean
overlay by dalice
adopted from User not found: lunae on 1/12/2022
What do we keep hold of?
We capture snapshots, breathing life into the moment, both the big and the small.
When we're young, we live with blinders on, believing that we know what we'll value years down the line. We bristle even at the idea we could be wrong, so set in our convictions.
I mean, for better or worse, I know I was this way.
I was so eager to put my culture behind me; I thought it had no meaning here, among people who didn't understand a lick of Chinese. It would be better to be like them, I thought--like beating them at their own game.
I wanted to wriggle free of weekend Chinese classes and the piles of language exercises, of unjumbling sentences and tracing character stroke patterns. I wanted to forget about memorizing idioms and Tang dynasty poems, dusty lessons that felt too far away from my lived experience. I wanted my language to mean something more to me, for it to be more than a performance on a phone call for grandparents an ocean away.
Deep down, I wanted to be a normal American kid--I didn't want to be a foreign other. I didn't want to wrestle with this too-big idea of cultural connection, of being obligated to a culture I'd never truly known. I didn't want to inherit this tug-of-war regarding my identity, somewhere between Chinese and American.
Yet here I was, grappling with this heritage rich with the stories of kingdoms and wars, of fiery revolution and ham-handed resolution.
I just... wanted things to be simple.
But the simple truth is: they weren't.
In hindsight, my immigrant parents, while they tried their best, weren't prepared to tackle the conversation with me. Even now, I don't know if they'll ever be.
It wasn't until I'd worked with a Chinese-speaking patient that I comprehended what it meant to know the language. See, she'd been a lil bit grouchy with other staff, gotten frustrated with our virtual interpreters... yet her face lit up when she realized I understood her, that she could communicate with greater ease. My grasp of Chinese, while rough around the edges, made her feel safer and better understood.
We cracked little jokes; she laughed at my spoken Chinese missteps, lightheartedly hitting me with a grandmotherly tsk-tsk of disapproval.
She told me stories—
Of her life back in China, before she and her husband came to the States to live with their children: she waxed poetic about the best street vendors, the raucous wet markets, the tranquil scenery of the Hangzhou lakes.
Of the life she'd carved out here: how proud she was of her daughter for working hard and finding success, how happy she was finding good Asian produce at supermarkets, how she doted on her grandchildren.
... And, when her husband was out of the room, she confided in me about how afraid she was. She told me how she was so profoundly terrified of being a burden, so afraid of living with this disability--this consequence of her health condition.
It was one of those moments that crystallized in my mind, wherein I wished my Chinese was better; I deeply regretted my flippant dismissal of Chinese culture when I was younger, that I did not have the perfect words to put her mind at ease.
It was a somber homecoming, a kind of reclamation.
It was no thunderclap, no sudden epiphany--but rather a dawning realization, this new sense of recognition and acknowledgment.
Language is not always about what it is to us, but rather what it can be to others. In language, we capture our stories, taking note of our meaningful moments--both the highs and the lows. Put simply, it is the essence of our culture, the ways in which we put our lives into words.
And our culture, this thing of both history and beauty... I think about what it means for the lens of our lived experience, what it means for the spaces we inhabit and the marks we leave behind. How do we live shaped by our culture and how does it, in turn, live on, shaped by us?
So I think on this question:
Ni jue de zhe sheng ming, zhe shi jie, shi mei li de ma?
Do you feel that this lifetime, this universe, is beautiful?
We hold tight to what is beautiful, what is precious. We capture the moments that matter, spinning remembrances into ephemeral gossamer. The little details, exquisite and whisper-thin, are tucked and woven into our stories: personal anecdotes, community histories, cultural legacies.
Beauty has value, but no form: its meaning is what we make it.
So, in this swirling nebulous universe that marches on with or without us, I choose to believe that our lives can be beautiful; that our memories-made-stories find shape in the light of our humanity; that our culture, this long-lived vessel of history and tradition, gives us something greater to bind this story-bound beauty, to both glimpse the past and pass on to the future.
Pet Treasure
Shengui Guo Fisherman Doll
Higayu
Mizami
Shengui Guo Noblewoman Doll
Authentic Hand Sewn Legeica Plushie
Humble Wooden Offering Doll
Matrimonial Spirit
Shengui Guo Cursed Sake
Enchanted Lantern
Yunlong
Elegant Fuu Statuette
Pink Round Fan
Enoki Mushrooms
Beansprouts
Lotus Root
Longan
Pork and Mushroom Zongzi
Bamboo Shoots
Daikon
Nappa Cabbage
Winter Melon
Yardlong Beans
Bitter Melon
Durian
Taro Root
Water Chestnuts
Persimmons
Tea Eggs
Oyster Mushrooms
Pork Bao
Steamed Rice
Bamboo Food Steamer
Shengui Guo Inkstone Mask
Traditional Bamboo Sheeta Hairbrush
Knotty Bamboo Slips
Chinese Textbook
Tumbled Jade Beads
Imported Jade Clasp
Chajin Scattered Leaves
Chajin Tea Hills Beanbag
Chajin Favored Pot
Chajin Fading Scrap
Wanderlust Spirit
Lunar Rabbit
Box of Dried Chrysanthemum Buds
Sweet Spirit Offering
Chestnut Incense Burner
Shengui Guo Boat of Flowers
Cream Hydrangea
Yellow Chrysanthemum
Pink Peony
Pink Lotus
Zodiac Rat Spirit
Zodiac Ox Spirit
Zodiac Tiger Spirit
Zodiac Rabbit Spirit
Zodiac Dragon Spirit
Zodiac Snake Spirit
Zodiac Horse Spirit
Zodiac Sheep Spirit
Zodiac Monkey Spirit
Zodiac Rooster Spirit
Zodiac Dog Spirit
Zodiac Pig Spirit