Universality is an element that connects people; it’s a feeling that soothes loneliness and provides a sense of camaraderie even though people are physically alone. One of the reasons is that relatability validates personal experiences – it makes known that people make mistakes, they struggle, and they survive. Therefore, so can you.
Moving to the west, I realized the fast-paced lifestyle here, and I succumbed to it like the wave of crowds on the TTC subway at 4 pm. Amongst the fleeting connections and hurried exchanges of today’s busy world, it is hard to find people to relate to. Unless #relatable TikTok’s can make do for you, some books have the power to offer a profound sense of companionship.
I want to introduce two books that fostered that feeling of having heart-to-heart conversations with someone. Getting to know them, sympathizing with them, and ultimately connecting to the larger picture of hope. The books initiate methods of personal story-telling— reciting the humane struggles of life, happiness, and heartbreak.
Each one of these books feels like a time machine to me, but I hope they garner in you a feeling that you’d want to hold on to.
1. ‘ We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies ‘ by Tsering Yangzom Lama
14th March 2023. I agreed to go with my dad to a book panel discussion conference for a book that I had never read. It was only when I got seated did I read “We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies,” for the first time, written by a Canadian Tibetan author, Tsering Yangzom.
The book is about Tibetan sisters Tenkyi and Lhamo, who, with their parents, fled Tibet because of Chinese illegal occupation in 1959. The book moves with the variable setting that changes as Tibetans repeatedly get displaced. The different characters fleeing Tibet, journeying through Nepal, and immigrating to Canada intricately craft the story. On their journey to Nepal, the sisters were asked to safeguard a small ku, a religious statue. The plot shifts back and forth in time to reveal the family’s ancestral history, trace the origins of the ku, and follow Dolma’s growing understanding of her family’s past traumas. The book mentions specific details of religion, colonization, and Tibetan displacement, which I believe to be a beautiful work of vulnerability and longing. The narrative highlights the relevance of a homeland to one’s sense of identity. It is laced with Tibetan phrases, rituals, and religious beliefs. An oracle, love, several voyages, and the main characters’ personal progress are among the moving elements. The end of the story is both emotional and fulfilling.
A little about Tibetans in Toronto:
Tibetan activism is prevalent amongst Tibetan youth. SFT (Students for a Free Tibet) collectively aim to foster peace and restore the connection to their homeland, while striving for the rejuvenation of Tibetan civilization in exile. They do so much with the existing longing for the feel of our land’s rough edges.
2. ‘ Falling Leaves ‘ by Adeline Yen Mah
In English, the phrase, “an apple falls close to the tree,” means you are like your family. In Shanghai, they say, “The leaves fall close to the roots,” which means that you will always return to your family and roots, whether you want it or not.
Covering a sweeping range of China’s immediate past from the twentieth century, this book is a heartbreaking autobiography of an unwanted Chinese daughter. Imagine this: a dusty road with a little girl, an old map in her hands, finding her way home because no one bothered to pick her up from school. The autobiography entails a story that exemplifies the human need for belonging and the will to survive. The book was quite depressing at some points, with the dysfunctional family Adeline was born into, cultural expectations, and the backdrop of Japanese colonization and World War 2. Adeline’s story is an anguish so sad but beautiful it makes me believe in an individual’s soul strength. I hope it makes you feel somewhat the same.