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The table being round means all the dishes are equally within reach of everyone, but Chinese family meals aren’t complete without everyone serving food to everyone else, because doing so shows love and respect, which means we all need to do it in the most attention-seeking way possible. What’s the point of giving Big Aunt the biggest siu mai if nobody else notices?
Everything in Chinese-Indo culture is like that; everybody is somehow related to everybody else, and deals happen because somebody’s in-law knows someone else’s friend’s cousin.
We all still live in the same neighborhood, a mere ten-minute walk away from one another, and I feel the weight of their expectations, as if I have four mothers and all of their hopes and dreams have been placed on my shoulders. I’m basically driven by a mixture of caffeine and familial guilt.
most men seem to think that just because I’m in the wedding industry, that must mean I’m in a rush to get married myself. The truth is, being in the wedding industry is a surefire way of making me not want to get married.
But everything else, everything else I hate. I hate that brides and grooms are driven nuts by this unrealistic expectation that the day has to be perfect. I hate that it’s turned into an industry that makes people spend way more than they should, and I hate that we’re part of that!”
This is what always happens when one of my generation dares to talk back to our parents. They band together and reduce us to kids having a tantrum, dismissing our words so we can’t pierce their armor.
