Lynda Lin Grigsby

I could write this entire essay as an ode to my daughter’s drawings. In our house, reams of paper, canvases, and restaurant napkins are covered in the pencil outlines of cute bunnies, fuzzy animals, and anthropomorphized cupcakes with big, dreamy eyes. She once painted a kitty face on a butternut squash that we had grown in the backyard garden to use as a soup ingredient, but blue Sharpie somehow saved the day (for the squash). Who could cut into a gourd with those eyes? A monster, I tell you...

The soundtrack for the back-to-school season is accented with excited chatter in the school playground, the shrill gathering call of the bell and the inevitable crescendo of anguished cries from tear-streaked open mouths. As much as the return to school means structure and academics, it can also signify separation anxiety for many families.
In September, the search term "separation anxiety" peaks for good reasons: Distressed parents either resort to Google for solutions for their children's s...

Warren Furutani knows this season in his life is about his legacy.

The community activist and politician who served in the state assembly and school boards for 30 years has a lot of ground to cover. In his home office in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles, Furutani is softer than when he served as a no-nonsense assembly member representing the 55th district.

In my middle school in California, the book “I, Columbus: My Journal 1492 — 1493” was required reading. The fictional account is written in a first-person diary format that aims to humanize the person behind the famous name.

Sakura Godber’s first instinct when considering baby names for her son in 2012 was to lean towards more Western names. Her own first name, which means “cherry blossom” in Japanese, was paired with a Western middle name — Diane — to reflect her Japanese American identity.
But for a time during her childhood, Godber wished to be more legible to American society and wanted to be ...

Actress Tamlyn Tomita, 60, sits in front of a red and black kimono from the 1900s that is hanging on the wall of her Los Angeles home. Its age makes it too delicate to dance in, as she does during Obon season, the annual Japanese Buddhist festival that celebrates ancestral spirits. The scale of the kimono’s flower motif is very loud and theatrical, she says. Her husband, Daniel Blinkoff, bought it for her on eBay.
“He thought this was very me,” she says wryly, laughing.
Tomita’s hair is style...

The collective memory of Michelle Kwan always puts her on ice, enveloped in chiffon as she glides in defiance of time. Since retiring from the sport 17 years ago, the two-time Olympic medalist and figure skating Hall of Famer has ente...

Janet Wang was a junior in high school when she watched “Better Luck Tomorrow,” a movie about a group of high-achieving Asian American high schoolers with a penchant for theft and murder. In the darkened theater, she saw a reflection of herself — not in the criminal activities but in the nuanced portrayals of complex kids growing up in the suburbs.
It was the first time Wang saw a cast that looked like her starring in a highly stylized movie like the MTV videos and shows she loved. Plus, it w...

Anna Magnuson’s twin daughters have different ways of approaching ballet class. One usually runs into the studio first and boldly performs a series of pliés to capture the teacher’s attention. The other twin clutches a teddy bear, lingers a few steps back, and watches the action before joining the line of little dancers.
Their distinct personalities earned the 4-year-old fraternal twins endearing nicknames: Magnuson calls the outgoing one her “Lisa Simpson Twin,” and the naturally cautious on...

As kids, we really knew how to decorate. Time-travel back to your childhood bedroom and gaze upon those four walls: Perhaps you’ll find a tear-out (or 10) from teen magazines of a broody Brad Pitt, Radiohead album cover posters and the sweetest Sanrio accessories with the talismanic power to elicit joy. Just me? Probably not. Your younger self’s design choices told visitors exactly what you liked, where you’d been and what you valued. But somewhere along the way, we all started decorating for...

In 2003, after Heng Ou gave birth to her first child, her aunt and cousin drove down from the Bay Area and temporarily moved into her suburban Los Angeles home for 10 days. They became fixtures in the kitchen, cooking soup and meals that perfumed the home with delicious aromas.
“It was a really satisfying experience because I was being nurtured,” says Ou. This postpartum practice of nurturing the mother aligns with the Chinese cultural practice of zuo yue zi, or sitting the month, a time when...

The diaphanous dress with the soft pink flower motif and ruffled shoulder straps on a thrift store rack called out to Kayla Marie. “Put me on,” the dress seemed to say to the 27-year-old video editor. Paired with a brown shoulder bag and some ruffle ankle socks, the item of clothing could make her feel as confident as Jenna Rink, the teen character magically transformed into an adult portrayed by Jennifer Garner in the 2004 romantic comedy 13 Going on 30, Marie thought.
“I knew it would make ...

February 19, 1942 changed everything for Japanese Americans.
The curves and flourishes of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signature that day on Executive Order 9066 precipitated the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese...

A dance floor has equalizing power. When the music starts, differences fall away. On the dance floor, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor. No one judges where you came from or what language you speak. What m...