Well, I would 

Paint my skin into a colorless color, & I would 

Dye my hair, wear two blue contacts, & I would 

Even go for plastic surgery, but if ever I really do

I assure you, I will not remove my native village

Accent while speaking this foreign tongue (I began

To imitate like a frog at age nineteen); nor will I 

Completely internalize the English syntax & 

Aristotelian logic. 

      

      No, I assure you I’ll not give up 

Watching movies or TV series, reading books

Listening to songs, each in Chinese though I hate them 

For being too low & vulgar. I was born to eat dumplings

Doufu, & thus fated to always prefer to speak Mandarin

Though I write in English. I assure you that even if I am 

Newly baptized in the currents of science, democracy & 

Human rights, I will continue to keep in line with 

My father’s haplogroup just as my sons do. No matter how 

We identify ourselves or are identified by others, this is 

What I assure you: I will never convert my proto selfhood  

Into white Dataism, no, not 

In the yellowish muscle of my heart

Yuan Changming  published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) and BestNewPoemsOnline, among others.