“Lucky Me” is a snapshot from my childhood – my older brother and I learning how to use chopsticks using lucky charms, him in his karate clothes and me in my favorite Hello Kitty zip-up. Growing up, our mother found endless ways to preserve our Japanese culture – from sitting us down and teaching us how to use chopsticks, to reading Japanese children’s books to us, to enrolling us in a Japanese Saturday school. As a kid who just wanted to fit in with my white American friends, I often found these efforts tedious or unimportant and did not appreciate them the way I do now. I carried a lot of internalized racism with me and had always wondered, ‘why me?’, ‘why can’t I just be white?’. As an adult, I look back at these moments with deep gratitude that our mother created a cultural thread for us to unravel when we were older, reminding us of who we are and leading me back to memories and experiences that feel like home. Now, I remember moments like this one, and think to myself… ‘lucky me’.
Lucky Me, 16"x20", Acrylic on Canvas, 2023
Selected for "Have You Eaten", an AAPI art exhibit curated by Rya Wu - on display at Nino Studio between February 1-29.
