Pandora's Ink Digital Magazine

Written by Y. W. from Canada Thank you for your recent application to upgrade Canada from a sovereign nation to the “51st State.” We reviewed your proposal, that is, public threats, tantrum-filled tweets and musings about tearing up century-old treaties.    We must regretfully decline. Our universal healthcare has a compelling pull compared to a system that treats illness as an opportunity for profit.    We’d like to clarify that the 1908 treaty is a map, not a sketch. We don

Written by Alvin Su from Louisiana, USA I Remembrance - 缅怀  Monday, June 26th, 2023, Taipei   Accompanied by my father, we landed in Taiwan under a soft, grey sky. The air, thick with the smell of rain, clung to our clothes as if it too remembered things better left forgotten.   The old days are woven in like a piece of brocade with faded patches here and there,  certain memories now unclear and worn out. As I stood, the wind whispered through the willow trees like a gentle l

Written by Anonymous Dear Homophobic Bullies, I know you. You are the stranger who, upon seeing my rainbow flag lanyard at school, started laughing. You are the stranger who would continuously name-call me, single me out, and make me feel completely out of place. You are the stranger who hated me. But why?  Why did you see me as an enemy before you ever talked to me? Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, because maybe you did not hate me; instead, you hated what you saw in m

Written by Anonymous As a boy, I had an instinctive curiosity about dresses. Time and again, I would sneak into my mother’s dressing room, run my fingers through the hanging fabrics, and, if no one was watching, put one on in front of the mirror — a narrow-shouldered boy looked back at me from his overflowing dress.  Of course, these explorations were done with utmost vigilance and in absolute secrecy. Even at the age of four, a boy knows he is not supposed to wear dresses; h

Written by Eric Li from Texas, USA The first time Grandma disabled Mom’s petunia sprinkler system, I thought it was a betrayal of...

Written by Liesl Ma from Massachusetts, USA One night quite recently, I scrolled through Snapchat, layering filter after filter onto my face. My nose looked smaller, my skin impossibly smooth, my lips fuller. When I finally posted the picture, I realized something unsettling—I had shared a photo of a girl who didn’t even exist. It hit me then just how deeply beauty standards had wormed their way into my mind, making me feel like my real face needed embellishing in order to be

Written by Liesl Ma from Massachusetts, USA Dear Kim Kardashian,  You are a beautiful person, and teenage girls like me admire your ambition and success. You’ve built a billion-dollar empire, redefined celebrity influence, and shaped modern beauty trends. Yet with such power comes responsibility. You are in a position that very few women will ever be in: you can define the global beauty standard. I follow you on social media. I use your products, but I can’t shake the feeling

Written by Iris Zhu from California, USA Beyond the elderberry bushes, across from the old gymnasium at the elementary school, lies a small creek that runs beneath bowed willows and moss-covered boulders. We didn’t know where it flowed from nor where it led to, but the little stream became a gathering place for the second graders every recess. We would abandon our sock-stuffed shoes at the shore, splashing ankle deep until soft pebbles pillowed our feet, to wonder at the flee

Written by Eric Wu from Washington, USA My father’s hands shook, struggling to hold the bouquet of impeccably red roses in full bloom. He hoped that the sharp, thorny flowers could act as a needle and stitch up the hole in his heart.  I followed closely behind, holding a transparent turquoise ring neatly tucked into its velvet cushion, ready to initiate the handoff just as we had meticulously perfected the day before.  My heart pounded as the plan of my own orchestration had