"Speaking and writing in English carried with it the anxiety of being betrayed by one’s usage mistakes and lack of fluency; this was no doubt reinforced by the linking of academic success to facility with speech and writing. At the same time that I began learning English, my Mandarin slowed in development, because I wasn’t using it outside of the domestic sphere. To this day, even though I enrolled in a year of intensive Mandarin study in college, my Mandarin is quite stunted. I’ve lost most of the ability to read and write in it, sadly."
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Poets from ChinaPoets from the United StatesWomen authors from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesChinese Americans
Original Language: English
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Sources
On the fluency of her mother tongue in "The Self Is a Fiction: Jenny Xie Interviewed by Mariam Rahmani" in Bomb Magazine (12 April 2018)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jenny_Xie
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Jenny Xie
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