Janan Chan陳臻, our guest blogger this week, lives in Shanghai. His poems are published in The Mitre (118, 122, 126, 128), yolk. (1.1), Soliloquies Anthology (25.2), Warm Milk (3), and the chapbook “Water Lines”. Janan’s poems explore themes such as identity, place and belonging (Chinatown, Montreal, pg. 62-63); feelings of mundanity and ephemerality (Cavity Sonnet, describing a cavity filling during the pandemic); and feelings of nostalgia and longing (On Track, pg. 15, Knowing Few People in Early Semesters, and 15.) Janan is a graduate of Concordia University in Montreal and Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec.

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In 2004, my mom and I left Hong Kong for Toronto. I was seven years old. Although I cannot recall this, she tells me I struggled in English class. My weekend Chinese lessons were no better. I could not see the use of the language, and the lessons reminded me of a community and identity I no longer wished to be a part of. In school, I refused Chinese dishes for lunch, preferring instead the white bread sandwiches that my classmates ate. Later, in high school, I would even try my best to distance myself from the Chinese international students. In university, I completed a BA Honours in English Lit. with a Minor in Creative Writing and Journalism, and an MA in English Lit. and Creative Writing.  These achievements and how I lived allowed me to insulate myself within an English-speaking identity.

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