Asians Ex Diary [updated] May 2026

Now I do: because some heartbreaks are too precise for translation.

Because here’s the thing no one tells you about being Asian and falling in love with another Asian from a different Asian country: you spend half the time bonding over the similarities (rice, filial piety, saving plastic bags) and the other half quietly decoding each other’s wounds. Your family’s brand of strict wasn’t my family’s brand of strict. Your “I’m fine” meant something else in Cantonese than it did in my mom’s Tagalog. asians ex diary

I still have your kimchi in my fridge sometimes. Not the good homemade kind — the store-bought one you said was “acceptable.” You were always generous with your critiques. Now I do: because some heartbreaks are too

— A former someone’s favorite eggroll. Your “I’m fine” meant something else in Cantonese

Things I Never Said in English

We broke up not because of love. We broke up because I couldn’t explain to my lola why your father’s ghost stories about the Japanese occupation made you so angry. And you couldn’t explain to your aunt why my family’s colonial Catholicism still made me cross myself before lying.