Thank you for your curiosity about me. Be my guest!

I am a small potato who was born in a Chinese blue-collar family and grew up as an only child in Guangzhou, China. (If you don’t know where Guangzhou is, think of Hong Kong—my birth city is located only 85 miles westbound.) I am an avid reader, writer and thinker. Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.

I am the author of Golden Orchid: The True Story of An Only Child in Contemporary China. If you are interested in knowing more about my childhood in China, read my book. I am a sustainability-minded American citizen. Rachel Carson, my alumna from Chatham University, Pittsburgh, is my inspiration for my second Master’s Degree cum laude in natural resources and global sustainability awarded by Virginia Tech. Yes, I am a devoted communicator bridging the East and West, art and science, and professional silos and a wider audience.

I am an essayist, translator, and researcher. If you are looking for unconventional opinions and ideas that are different from the mainstream, I welcome you to my op-ed column “Karen in America.” My earlier writing about my Chinese perspective of my American life also appeared in the Pittsburgh-based online journal Coal Hill Review. My essays and travel writings have appeared in Crazy English Teens magazine, the anthology The District Lines published by the Washington-based Politics and Prose Bookstore, Flyway, The Times-Picayune and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I earned my MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University.

I am a multilingual, cross-cultural global citizen. Cantonese is my mother tongue and English is my first language by choice. French and Japanese are my pepper and salt to dine with my muse. I champion for international collaboration and partnership. My collaboration includes being a Chinese translation checker for the prize-winning biography Honorable Survivor by Lynne Joiner, a contributor to DC-based artist Judy Byron for her art installation, Continental Drift, and producing sustainability projects with socially conscious professionals.

I am a small potato that aims to give my feeble voice to those voiceless through my writing and translation. I am a small potato who is ready to serve for our only planet that is made up of hundreds of millions of silent, small potatoes, who are being forgotten and forced out of their habitats and space. Thank you for your time to read this far.