According to Chinese folklore, I was born with a Tiger’s curse. Female babies born in the Year of the Tiger are strong-willed, and hot-tempered. a chubby Chinese girl from Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii nurtured by an exuberantly feminist mother and near-saintlike father. Born in the year of the  My first existential crisis was when at the age of three I realized I was not a mermaid. After plunging into a seductive turquoise pool and seeing the hundreds of bubbles rise above my head and no iridescent rainbow tail emerge I was soon yanked to surface by my Uncle Jim. I tried again because the first time had to be a fluke.

 

I am …