Holding on to an old Chinese saying in a time of intense political partisanship,

There’s a Chinese saying, 同舟共济, crossing a river in the same boat.
It means learning to row together, even when you disagree, because there’s only one boat, and the current is strong.

As a Chinese immigrant who arrived in Hawai‘i six years ago, I often joke that I’m a “Hawai‘i toddler.” Learning to speak the language, build credit, understand the Legislature, even grasp American politics.

I’m still wobbling through it all.

I remember the first time I whispered “mahalo,” or walked along the knife-edge ridges above the clouds and thought, this is my life? Sometimes I still can’t believe I left 30 years of my life in China behind and somehow began anew in this island paradise. I count “one, two, tree,” and la

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