What does it mean to become more fully who we are—body, history, faith, family, and all?
In this Radix Live conversation, we welcome Rev. Dr. Lauren Lisa Ng to discuss her latest book, Becoming Chinese: Essays on Self-Discovery from Head to Toe, a personal and beautifully written exploration of identity, belonging, and the sometimes complicated work of coming home to ourselves.
Structured quite literally from head to toe—hair, eyes, ears, mouth, belly, hands, feet, and more—Lauren’s essays trace her journey as a second-generation Chinese American growing up in suburban Pennsylvania and learning, over time, to reclaim parts of herself she had once been encouraged to minimize or leave behind altogether. Along the way, she writes about family and ancestral memory, racism and assimilation, ministry and vocation, food and the body, and the ordinary rituals through which culture is passed from one generation to another.
Yet Becoming Chinese is about more than one person’s cultural identity. As a minister and theologian, Lauren asks what it means to become whole: to attend honestly to the histories we inherit, the bodies we inhabit, the communities that form us, and the God who meets us within them.
A warm and wide-ranging conversation about heritage, faith, race, embodiment, and the sacred—and unfinished—work of becoming who we are.
Rev. Dr. Lauren Lisa Ng is an ordained American Baptist minister and Senior Program Officer at Berkeley School of Theology, where she leads the Thriving Congregations Initiative serving Asian American congregations and ministers. A second-generation Chinese American, she is passionate about emerging Asian American theologies and honoring AANHPI histories, identities, and faith. Lauren holds an MDiv from Berkeley School of Theology and a DMin in Creative Leadership from Central Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the author of the poetry collection The Way We Tell It and the memoir Becoming Chinese: Essays on Self-Discovery from Head to Toe. She also plays bass and sings for Whisperfight—and prides herself on finding the best vegan food wherever she goes.
To learn more about Lauren, visit
https://www.laurenlisang.com/
Names mentioned:
Daniel Kushner, Donald Trump, bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins), Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Iain McGilchrist, Luci Shaw, John Berger, Peggy McIntosh, Phil Collins, Vanna White, William Shakespeare, Giacomo Puccini, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Madeleine L’Engle, Bryan Stevenson.
Books / Works mentioned:
The Education of Desire: Towards a Theology of the Senses (by Timothy J. Gorringe)
Ways of Seeing (by John Berger)
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (by Peggy McIntosh; essay)
Invisible: Theology and the Experience of Asian American Women (by Grace Ji-Sun Kim)
The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (by Iain McGilchrist)
The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (by Iain McGilchrist)
Madama Butterfly (opera by Giacomo Puccini; mentioned as Madame Butterfly)
Miss Saigon (musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil)
“Do You Remember?” (song by Phil Collins)
Author book suggestion:
More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith (by Kathy Khang, Christie Heller De Leon, and Asifa Dean. Edited by Nikki A. Toyama-Szeto and Tracey Gee. Consulting Editor Jeanette Yep)