Xiaoping Li

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A few years back I was chair of and actively organizedevents for the Toronto Tongzhi Club (TTC)– a Mandarin speaking gay men’s club in Toronto.  Many gay men from China met through this club.  Some of them developed long-term relationships.  Tonight I will attend a celebration event by a couple who have been together for 5 [...]

Police man Vu Pham was fatally shot by a retired politician Fred Preston on a rural road when Pham pulled over a truck driven by Preston.  When I first read the news and saw the picture of the Pham’s Asian face, a strange thought flashed in my head for a nanosecond: could it be possible that Pham had done to provoke Preston?   It turned [...]

When watching the Chinese women’s curling team and the Chinese pair figure skating team competing in the Winter Olympics, I realized that I cared more about them wining and less about Canadian teams’ wining.  This is probably because I felt that a Chinese win would help boost my positive image in public as people around [...]