4 min read
Sometimes the worlds we create reveal what we’re searching for most.
For one young artist, a pencil became a way to escape, imagine, and build something entirely their own.
When I immigrated from China to Palo Alto at age seven, 65% of my classmates either treated me as if I were invisible or a pariah. Only three girls were nice to me. The mean ones told me I was gross because I was Asian and said I was weird and wasn’t allowed to play with them. Even the Asian girls told me I was weird because I was Chinese, not Japanese. Clearly, this was all because of the narcissism of small differences that humans create to mask their inferiority, but as a child, you don’t know why you’re an outcast. You just know you are. “Paradise in a Pencil” is a film I made about how drawing helped me heal from hurt.
