Coming to America, I felt detached from my culture, and Chinese Yo-Yo helped me find my way back and make friends with other people that had a similar experience to me. I was very introverted growing up, and Chinese Yo-Yo allowed me to express myself and get over stage fright without saying a word. Through Chinese Yo-Yo, I found better ways to communicate with other people like my students and my English improved over time.

My cousin in Taiwan first introduced me to the Chinese Yo-Yo. The fast-moving object suspended on a string caught my attention.

He offered to teach me, so I begged my mom to buy me my first Chinese Yo-Yo. It was orange with wooden sticks. My mom got me the most basic one because I would often pick up random hobbies and never stuck with them. It was different this time. I practiced whenever I had a chance and began to search for tutorials online. When I left Taiwan and moved to Georgia, I stopped doing Chinese Yo-Yo for a while because I was busy adjusting to the new environment. My mom wanted me to keep up with my Chinese so I joined the local Chinese school.

As I was exploring my new Chinese school, I found a group of girls my age doing the Chinese Yo-Yo. They found out that I could play Chinese Yo-Yo so I joined their group and we would perform at every Lunar New Year Festival. We would sit down and plan out the routine for our next performance during the rest of the year. I grew closer to them and we started hanging out outside of practice. I felt like we could relate to each other over our immigrant parents and bond over our trips back home to Taiwan.

I did not plan to make a Chinese Yo-Yo club, but when I heard that the other girls in our performance group had made Chinese Yo-Yo clubs I felt pressured to make one. At first, it was difficult to find people that would join and I had trouble organizing the club. Over the years, more people joined and I got used to leading the club.

We started auditioning for shows such as International Night and the Talent Show. It ended up being really fun and we won the People’s Choice award for the Talent Show. Even though I was reluctant to start the Chinese Yo-Yo club, I am glad I did because I learned how to lead and teach. Later on, I got my first job being a Chinese Yo-Yo teacher at the Chinese School of Atlanta.

Now in college, I have not gotten a chance to practice Chinese Yo-Yo as much as I used to, but my friends and I managed to put together a performance for the APIDA Night Market.