“My Small Lane in Beijing” by Kai Liao is a magnificently- crafted coming-of-age story about acceptance while being in a different “crowd.” Kai was from Beijing, which meant that moving to another area in China, Guangzhou would make her seem like a complete outsider- and it did. Guangzhou was composed of Mandarin and Cantonese speakers (and Kai spoke Mandarin, But was unskilled at speaking Cantonese) and it was composed of people with a Guangzhou accent (Kai had a Beijing accent). Because of this, she was ridiculed by her classmates; she was different.

Though, during the winter season, she and her family decided to go visit her small lane in Beijing (her hometown) she and discovered that her Beijing accent was beautiful; it was her last piece of her hometown in Beijing. She had the accent since she was born, and it’d be a shame letting go of those memories. Her accent, she now knew, was wonderful.

This piece was absolutely fascinating and it was lovely reading it. I can completely relate to this experience, as I’m a Chinese-American, and I have an American accent. So that with my Mandarin is not a good combination- because of this, people would ridicule me and my accent, saying, “I thought you were actually natively Chinese, but you can’t even speak properly with your accent.” It really stings, but Kai being able to realize that her accent was perfect, even though she was different t, was truly a splendid ending.