I was 'Made in Taiwan' - born in a hospital in the town of Shalu located in the City of Taichung, Taiwan. I am a middle child sandwiched between an older brother who is almost 2 year older and a younger bother who is 4 years younger.

Ever since I can remember I have always loved to express myself via creative means such as drawing animals for my classmates, making little outfits for paper dolls, sketching houses with furnished rooms, sketching small houses and trying to make the space in the house work like bigger homes and making figurines out of mud and clay. I recall looking forward to attending Chinese calligraphy and painting classes every weekend. They were so much fun!

My father claims that I did a sketch of him sitting on a rocking chair when I was 2 years old. Unfortunately he did not keep it as evidence so I will have to take his word for it. Nevertheless, it made me feel quite special.

Above marked the day I first sat foot on US soil - namely San Francisco International Airport.

Being a kid, I have always dreamed about the ultra cool toys in the USA. Most of those notions came from watching television and meeting people who seemed alien to me when I was small. My father worked in a University and my parents used to host dinners and gatherings at our home with friends and colleagues.

I remember there was an American couple with two children who came to our home when I was about 7 or 8 years of age. They had Caucasian features but spoke Mandarin so I was really fascinated. The couple gave us chocolates and some marinated button mushrooms in small glass jars from the US. My mom was at a loss as to why people would eat preserved mushrooms rather than fresh ones. We ended up eating them directly from the jars and thought they tasted pretty good, even though they were quite unusual for Asians to eat.

Our family ended up in the US because my father wanted to advance his education. He came 6 months before my mom brought us over. When I first heard that my family was moving to the US. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep for days prior to departure. As a result I got so nauseous on the plane I threw up a good number of times. To this day I still couldn't believe how my mother single-handedly packed 6 suitcases full of everything ranging from kitchen china to blankets along with us three little ones. She practically brought over half of all the household items to the US. She laughed at what she did soon after realizing she could get all of the items in the US. She would often recall of the things she brought as though we were like fleeing refugees.