My Top 10 Articles from 2020
Commissioned, finalist, popular pieces, and my favourite essays on mental health, social justice, writing, etc.
2020 has been a difficult year for nearly everyone, myself included. Yet, it was also a year of reading, writing, and important internet discourse amidst widespread isolation. I am extremely grateful and proud to have benefitted from the amazing conversations that have taken place on this and other internet spaces.
Social justice and mental health were major topics this year thanks to a summer of protests and the pandemic taking over news headlines. Social justice and mental health also happen to be topics dear to my heart.
Productivity and creativity were also major topics this year. Many people discovered a newfound interest in creative outlets, and I’m no exception.
Without further ado, here are my top ten articles from 2020 on mental health, social justice, writing, and more — here on Medium and elsewhere.
How It Feels to Lose Your Native Language
ZORA — January 2020
I had the privilege of kicking off this year with a piece in Medium’s partner publication ZORA. This piece remains one of my most popular Medium essays and writing it was an incredible journey in self-discovery.
As a Canadian-born person of Chinese descent from Hong Kong-born parents, navigating my identity has been a life-long process. One of my main struggles is not fully knowing my native language. While I can understand and speak colloquial Cantonese, I’m mostly illiterate and have trouble communicating more complex subjects in my mother tongue.
I’m happy this personal essay touched other people in a similar boat, and I’m glad I’m not alone in being somewhat lost when it comes to my identity.
Oh, and a special kudos to illustrator Amy Lee Ketchum =)
How to Use a Musician’s Work Ethic for Writing Success
Better Humans — April 2020
One of my first commissioned pieces, “How to Use a Musician’s Work Ethic for Writing Success” was a fun and educational piece to write.
If you’re a productivity nerd or have heard of the “10,000 hour rule,” Outliers, and Peak, this article may be an interesting read for you. I don’t claim to be a productivity expert or the most disciplined writer, but I do believe that habits from my experience in classical music helps me succeed in ways beyond musical.
I hope you find an interesting tip here!
Queer and Quarantined Apart
An Injustice! — April 2020
Second edition published in Van Pride Magazine — July 2020
I had expected this piece to get buried under all the “isolation during pandemic” thought-pieces that have been published this year. Yet, my piece about the challenges of being isolated from my partner — an experience compounded by cultural and queer issues — seems to have resonated with many readers.
Thanks to Zuva for elevating this piece to the front page of An Injustice!. I also thank Medium curators for selecting this piece as a Featured Story.
This piece also got picked up by my local pride organization. An edited, more localized version appears in print in Van Pride Magazine—an annual publication that circulates during Vancouver’s Pride festival.
Cheese, Eggs, and Racism
An Injustice! — May 2020
Something that impacted me this year was racism against people appearing to be of East Asian descent. People who look like me — even Indigenous people — have been the target of anti-Asian racism because some people blamed the coronavirus outbreak on us.
Having grown up in Canada, I’ve long felt like “the Other.” Yet, discrimination isn’t something I deal with on a daily basis. I live in a progressive city where more than 20% of the population is Chinese, so I’ve rarely felt in danger.
But recent incidences of anti-Asian violence have reminded me that I am not totally safe. I am also reminded of the micro-aggressions I’ve dealt with — and continue to deal with — in everyday life. Case in point: food. In a time when people are quick to blame the coronavirus on an unfamiliar culinary culture, I hope this tongue-in-cheek essay will provide some insight and nuance.
I’m not a fake Canadian
Published in THIS Magazine — May/June 2020
THIS was one of the first magazines I’d ever subscribed to. I first became a THIS reader in high school thanks to a subscription I got from an initiative promoting Canadian journalism. To be honest, at that age, I didn’t understand everything I read in the magazine, but THIS did seed my eventual thirst for devouring and producing non-fiction.
In an age where people get their news from Twitter and other questionable sources, I appreciate THIS Magazine’s freely accessible yet independent journalism. And I was honoured to contribute to their May/June 2020 issue with a personal essay about my experience travelling as a person of colour.
As anyone who has seen donation pleas on major news outlets can attest, independent and in-depth journalism is becoming difficult to sustain. So, I encourage non-fiction readers to explore and support publications like THIS.
Guilty Until Proven Ill
Finalist in the Inspired Writer Personal Essay Contest — July 2020
By now, followers of my writing will know that I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and this is a topic I write about passionately.
OCD is a poorly misunderstood illness. It’s often equated to a cute personality quirk. Colloquially, someone is “so OCD” when they need to organize their stationery “just so.” But for real people with OCD, this isn’t just a quirk; it’s a major source of distress and a legitimate mental health condition.
Thank you, Kelly Eden and Ash Jurberg of Inspired Writer for publishing my essay, thereby dispelling some common OCD myths and giving actual folks with OCD like me a voice.
An ode to coffee
Illumination — July 2020
While this piece wasn’t particularly successful or deep, I want to include it here because it is such a departure from the type of thing I usually write on Medium! (Compared to the other pieces listed here, it’s more free-form, creative, and literary.)
Besides, I firmly believe that more coffee breaks are needed during our troubled times. While this piece is a very biased fangirl piece on coffee — my favourite drink in the world and my preferred recreational substance — it also touches on coffee culture, responsible agriculture, and the tricky ethics of technically having a drug addiction.
Why We Should Keep Writing, Even When It Hurts
Author Magazine — August 2020
Writing about OCD, racial injustice, and how bad life gets can get tough.
Sometimes, I wonder why I even write. Writing about difficult topics puts you in a position where you have to marinate in negative emotions. And writing about the trauma of your ancestors or about discrimination faced by people who look like you entails research into some very sobering statistics.
Yet, we writers are compelled to write. Because we know some things are worth talking about, writing about, and bringing awareness to, even if the act of doing so can get so, so tiring.
For more on this topic, check out this essay I published in Author Magazine, a blog by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.
What It Means to be Writing a Book
The Brave Writer — September 2020
This Featured Story on Medium was an unexpected hit.
2020 has been a difficult year for me, but it’s also the year I made a very important decision: to write, finish writing, and eventually publish a book. Publishing a novel has been a dream of mine since I was ten years old, but I’ve always half-assed this dream—I’ve never truly committed to seeing a project to completion.
Of course, I can’t promise that the manuscript I’m writing will become a published novel one day. However, I can promise to get it as far as I can down the publishing road. This is honestly the most significant pledge I’ve made in 2020.
How I Learned to Love Being Short
P.S. I Love You — November 2020
Ending this list with a little self-love, please enjoy my personal essay on what it’s like to be a very short person! (I’m only 4'11".) Shout-out to all my fellow shorties!
I hope you enjoy one or some or all of these pieces from 2020, and happy reading and writing come 2021!
