Why Mama HuHu


Thanks to my daughter, it's taken me 10 years to finally let go of my shame about speaking another language in American spaces. And when I say American, I really mean American in the sense of měi guó rén how my mom and my aunties speak about English only spaces...White spaces. 

When she was born I leapt into shoring my house to be Chinese print rich, books, posters, created signage. I can feel my unused Mandarin tongue come back to life.  Full of enthusiasm...but you know life. I am still functioning at about 3rd grade, after four summers back to Taiwan, my American accent has lighten and non Taiwanese Mandarin native speakers can hear my Taiwanese accent. I own that. I am proud of that work. 

I turned 48 years old last week and I fully embrace the Chinese idiom : mama huhu. 

PS I know I actually didn't explain the idiom but you can easily look it up and there is a great NY Times article about it  by Vanessa Hua  https://x.com/vanessa_hua/status/1526957927868731392

One of our "homecoming" trips . Where an ex evangelical kid tries to use her mediocre Chinese to understand Daoist Temples and Sea Goddess. It's all amazing to my kiddo and that's why I try. 





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