During my early childhood, I was not allowed to go out with my friends or watch TV like other children. My parents would not purchase any toys for me. I went to school eahc day, did my homework and studied my textbook until midnight. I remembered my mother told me one day, that everyone in this household has a duty. My duty was to study well in school, just like my dad had to work and supported the family and she had to take care of household matters.
One day in school, my Chinese Literature teacher was sick. We were told by a substitiute teacher to study the textbook ourselves. A little while later, I started to get bored and looked around. A few of my classmates sat behind me and were concentrated in reading. I was curious as to why they werent talking like they used to. I snatched the textbook from one of my classmates playfully, appalled that there was another book within. It was a romance novel in Chinese. I stared at the novel and wondered what it was about. Shethen offered another novel she had in her bag to me. I fell in love with the author then. I found bother characters and stories written by the author were fascinated. From that time, books became my best friend. I asked permission from my parents every weekend to go to the library; of course, ther would say yes, without realizing the only purpose I wanted to be there was to search and read my romance novel. Often at night, I would put my blanket underneath the closed door to cover the gap so they wouldnt find out that I was still up reading my novels, or placed my novels between textbooks, misleading them into believing that I was studying.
At the age of sixteen, my parents sent me aboard to Toronto for my education. Eager to be free from my parents' many restrictions, I was excited about the adventure. However, it was anew world to me. Every person I met was foreign to me. The didnt have the same colour of skin or eyes as I did, or spoke the language that I was familiar with.
