The Monster in the Mirror A column by Jami Nakamura Lin which uses mythical and legendary monsters from East Asian traditions as a lens to interrogate our fears

The Three Corpses

From the beginning, I knew that terror is a god. But now, I also believe that what might sound like a death rattle is merely the echo of ancestral song.

Jan 13, 2021
How I'm Learning to Manage Rage as a Bipolar Woman

Are these the only two stories? The one, where you defeat your monster, and the other, where you succumb to it?

Nov 19, 2020
What the Religious Right Gets Wrong About Monsters

Perhaps the certainty that you are not the monster—that no matter what you do, you will never become the monster—is what gives rise to monstrous behavior.

Jul 27, 2020
You Gave the Enemy a Face—and That Face Was Mine

In America, we like to be heroes—to find our enemies and defeat them. So, in a pandemic where the enemy is not visceral, we create one that is.

May 14, 2020
The Faint Spirits: On Ghosts, Grief, and Motherhood

I do not have flesh; I only have ghosts. In this story, the dead are only what I say they are. Does this make them less real?

Feb 20, 2020
My Father and the Dragon King

Myths were—are—created to explain the unknown, like natural disasters, like death, like the unknowable bodies of water.

Jan 06, 2020