A short handwritten piece in graphite, commissioned by Pencil Magazine.
I moved from Hong Kong to Canada at a young age. English came quickly and easily to me, while Cantonese suddenly felt alienating and burdensome. After struggling through a year of extracurricular Chinese school, I quit and completely fell out of practice.
Cultural erasure of the self-inflicted kind is common among first generation immigrants. Set the shame aside, however, and this loss becomes an opening.