Here Comes and Goes - Notes of an Immigrant Woman

Author: Yao Yao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: On February 4, 2006. A cold early spring morning. Returning to Toronto from Beijing via a direct flight, I was woken up at 4 a.m. by jet lag. Outside the window was a sheet of silver. I turned on the small desk lamp and let the orange light spread throughout the room. At the moment of takeoff from Beijing Capital International Airport, I "replayed" the process of immigrating to Canada once again, with the excitement and confusion of that time completely gone. It was quiet all around, and I felt as if I had just stepped out of the door of Beijing and immediately stepped into the door of Toronto. Though separated by thousands of miles in space, there was no distance in my heart. When the snow fell, I wrote a passage of text. Holding it in the morning, I tasted it and was moved by a sense of self-satisfaction. I thought, a book had begun. I had never written a novel before, only published a few articles in art magazines. The birth of You Come, I Go was entirely out of my personality that loves exploration and change. I wrote about immigration without deliberately portraying suffering; nor did I promote the struggle in life, because the struggle is the same everywhere. I presented the ordinary yet extraordinary flavors of immigration through the eyes of a woman who was gradually maturing but still full of childlike wonder. Though fragmented, it is thought-provoking. The book does not feature the dramatic ups and downs of expatriates' lives, but rather the fresh or slightly unsettling observations from daily life, which I wove together for the readers in a notebook style. These real feelings are merely inspiration for those standing on the other side of the door, not a call to action. The reflection on the ordinary is the true emotion of life. This is what I want to say to myself and to everyone.