Wei Tchou

Mar 13, 2025 | fivebooks.com | Manjula Martin |Wei Tchou |Zito Madu |Erika Morillo

Thanks for talking us through the 2025 shortlist for the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Autobiography—has it been a good year for memoir and autobiography? It’s been one of the best years for memoir and autobiography in recent memory! It’s been a delight to read so many interesting, well-written, imaginatively constructed, and thought-provoking memoirs. What were the judges looking for, when they came to compile the shortlist? We weren’t looking for any one particular thing.

Dec 17, 2024 | nytimes.com | Wei Tchou

Cantonese food for many American diners has long been associated with easy, comforting flavors: sesame chicken piled in a ring of steamed broccoli, creamy crab Rangoon dipped in sweet-and-sour sauce and moo shoo pork rolled into pancakes with tangy hoisin. But at New York's recently opened Cha Cha Tang restaurant, the menu is more adventurous. The pork chops are fried katsu style and come from pampered Kurobata pigs; afterward, guests can enjoy French toast stuffed with violet ube cream.

Jun 6, 2024 | vqronline.org | Wei Tchou

At the time of my brother’s first psychotic break, I knew nothing about ferns but that I had one and it was dying. I watched its seashell leaves wilt and drain. First they were jade, then chartreuse, then cream and sienna, like a stained pillowcase. I couldn’t let it go, bothering it with a spray bottle, even as its leaves fluttered away. All I knew about ferns was that they like humidity and light. My little studio, meanwhile, was dry and dingy.

May 22, 2024 | pw.org | Wei Tchou

I haven’t enjoyed being pregnant at all and now, six months in, I’m angry at how unprepared I was for the body horror and emotional isolation. Since November, I haven’t written a sentence (I am writing this thanks to Zofran, a prescription anti-nausea drug I got yesterday), haven’t been able to read a book, haven’t been able to cook, eat normally, pick up after myself, or see friends. I used to write to be in the world; I used to go into the world so I could write.

May 14, 2024 | vqronline.org | Wei Tchou

LANGUAGELESSONSAt the time of my brother’s first psychotic break, I knew nothing about ferns but that I had one and it was dying. I watched its seashell leaves wilt and drain. First they were jade, then chartreuse, then cream and sienna, like a stained pillowcase. I couldn’t let it go, bothering it with a spray bottle, even as its leaves fluttered away. All I knew about ferns was that they like humidity and light. My little studio, meanwhile, was dry and dingy.