Meet Christina C. Wu

We were lucky to catch up with Christina C. Wu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christina C., so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
As a child, I loved reading books and dreamed of becoming an author. Later in my life, I pursued a path toward education and psychology, and counseled Asian American families. When I became a mother, I fell in love again with reading children’s books. I noticed a lack in bilingual English / Chinese children’s books particular early reader chapter books. I wanted to infuse my linguistic, educational knowledge with my personal and work experiences into my writing.

I believe that finding one’s purpose is a continual journey through experiences and attaining goals. The journey is to always go forward and upward like hiking to a mountaintop. There will be setbacks, scars, and falls. I hope my life reflects a positive slope, as time goes on, that I am always achieving my purpose—which is to encourage and walk alongside other families to foster cultural awareness and empathy through my books.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a bilingual Chinese children’s book author. I’ve written (what may be the first of its kind!) an English / Chinese early reader chapter book with two versions. The two versions are the phonetic Roman pinyin or the bopomofo Zhuyin fuhao used in Taiwan for reading Traditional Chinese characters. The book is entitled AHMA LOVES YOU! and includes beautiful, colorful full-page and spot illustrations by fellow Taiwanese American Eunice Chen.

 

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Working and volunteering with Chinese American families, fostering understanding and empathy within myself, and being a bibliophile are three things that impacted me in my journey into become a bilingual children’s book author.

If you’re searching for your purpose, start volunteering and meeting people who have similar passions as you. It’s okay to realize something is not for you. You can refocus to see if you need to redirect your goals. If you run into obstacles, then you either redirect yourself or persist through the challenges to achieve your goals and gain more knowledge.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I read THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Amy Tan when I was in high school, and again over twenty years later as a mother in 2020 after my own mother passed away. The complex relationship between mothers and daughters, especially amongst different cultures and backgrounds, is intriguing. I’ve learned that humans, while beautiful, are also flawed and complicated. It can take our whole lives to understand the person closest to us. If we can’t even understand our own motives, how can we claim to understand another’s?

My mother reminds me of June’s mother Suyuan— she may agree outwardly with other people at the expense of her own daughter and criticize June while praising other daughters. However, Suyuan, privately to her daughter one-to-one, tells her in the “Best Quality” chapter of the book, “Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everybody else want best quality. You thinking different.” This crab scene, made famous by the movie, is touching because it reveals: 1) the mother sees and understands the daughter’s intentions, 2) Suyuan is saying her June’s intentions are good, and 3) June’s mother is proud of her.

After I re-read this chapter in 2020, I recalled how my own mother sometimes criticized me in public. While it may seem unkind and I wouldn’t want to do this with my own daughter, I understand now that it was my mother’s way of showing familial and personal humility that her daughter had room for improvement (which I do).

In our relationships, we cannot control another person’s motives and actions. We can communicate our feelings, and hope the other person will understand. THE JOY LUCK CLUB reminds us that if we take time to learn someone else’s culture, life experiences, and struggles, we may be able to understand why they do certain actions that may seem strange or even hurtful to us. We can strive to attain understanding, respect and empathy for one another.

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Image Credits
Isabelle Engler

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