My newly teenaged cousin, a first-generation American, recently lost some weight. The reason behind it kind of baffled me but made me want to hug her, too. The reason behind her sudden weight loss was simple (or was it?)—her packed Indian lunch made her peers scrunch their noses.

@simuliu talks about such instances throughout his book, We Were Dreamers.
I am not an immigrant, but I am Asian, and have experienced some racism when I was travelling in North America. And I can never imagine what Asian-Americans go through since childhood!

The only commonality b/w Simu and me is a) we are millennials and b) we are Asians. Despite this, the level of relatability with what he said in the book was unmatched. We might be in different countries, but some of the experiences, especially what he went through at home, really hit home with me. Now, now, I won't wash my dirty laundry here, and I will say that although my parents never forced me to do anything I didn't want to, we did end up hurting each other in different ways, and the pain still lingers.

I have always said, I am no one to judge others' life, but reading this book was extremely heart-warming. His experiences as a Chinese-Canadian person and an actor, his life back in China with his grandparents (you could hear the love in his voice when he talked about his grandparents and it made me cry), and him landing the role of Shang Chi . . . all of this validated Asian experiences in the West. And these are the stories we need!
I strongly recommend this one.