OH LOVE. i am going to be echoing the thoughts of all the other queer and trans asians in the comments but it's really meaningful to be able to engage with it like this. the thing that struck me the most is the through line of something your mom tells you... existing in two cultural contexts that you are meant to straddle and even learn to reject one while being paraded around by the other as something to stare at. really great. esp the bit abt names. its so odd. how do you reconcile heritage with the freedom only afforded by those that exotify? really fun imagery as well, my favorite is an early one of the main character sleeping going from a young to older version with the same composition. simple and yet really effective!!
Thank you so much!
Yeah, straddling between two cultures is really difficult. As an Asian obviously it's difficult to be queer within our communities, but then within queer communities it's difficult to be Asian. You really can't win.
Regardless, I'd like to build a better world by talking about these problems. Thanks again for reading!