Xiaoping Li

In my first a few years in Canada, I admired the celebration of Christmas. The Christmas trees, Santa Claus, reindeer, gifts, turkey dinner, carols, church services, Christmas-themed movies, Christmas songs. There was a system in this celebration! In comparison, the Chinese New Year celebration seemed haphazard. There were no dedicated songs, no celebrating figures such [...]

Last Sunday, when I drove pass by Mississauga Road and Hwy401, I decided to visit the building where I worked for nearly six years from 1993 to 1998. I lost my way. I drove around with many U turns for about 10 minutes before locating the building. It has been nearly 13 years since I [...]

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I became aware that an “old man” in my neighbourhood was bedridden. He couldn’t go to the public outhouse in our neighbourhood like the rest of us did.  He needed someone to stay at home to look after him around the clock.  I wondered what was [...]

It occurred to me one morning while I was awake in bed. I wondered about the reasons for me to get up. A decade ago, while I was working for a chemical company located in Mississauga, such wondering rarely occurred and even when it occurred, could last no more than a second. The answer was [...]

On Feb. 25, 2011 The Globe And Mail published an article reporting a finding that Canadian born visible minorities earn less than their white counterparts.  Specifically, Chinese earn 8% less, South Asians 13% less and blacks 19%. I accept the reality that there exists racial discrimination in Canada.  I accept this challenge in my life.  [...]

After I have practiced accepting myself unconditionally, including accepting myself being late for meetings, being untidy in my home and office, being lazy and being bad in general, I have begun to accept others unconditionally. I used to look down on some people for various reasons such as being lazy, weird, slow, not motivated, unappreciative, [...]

I arrived at my sister’s home in Waterloo on the evening of Dec. 23, 2010, with 3 days of change of clothes, planning to return to Toronto on Dec. 26th after spending the Christmas holidays with her family. On the morning of Dec. 24th, I felt that I would feel more comfortable in my own [...]

MacLean’s article titled “Too Asian” (http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/) misses one important perspective. The reason that Asians and Whites seem to be “segregated” on the campuses of U of Toronto, U of Waterloo and U of British Columbia is not just that Asians don’t make effort to mingle with Whites as the article has implied. It is also [...]

There are many challenges in my life that I once resented and now have accepted. They are: 1. I am short, only 163cm tall. When I was in Wuhan University in China, there was a popular saying among the students: a young man shorter than 170cm is considered semi-disabled in the dating scene. 2. In [...]

Mid July.  It was the second last day of a seven-day rock climbing and mountaineering course in Jasper.  A couple of my classmates broached with me the idea of paying tips to our instructors.  I declined to participate.  Despite that I liked our instructors very much, learned a lot from them and appreciated their answering all the questions I [...]