Why Wai?

Been a bit MIA lately with the move, traveling, and everything in between. Now that we’re settled a bit here, I’m back and wanted to share a bit about how Wai Lifestyle came to be.

慧 in Cantonese is pronounced like an abrupt “y” and it translates to “intelligent” or “bright” in English. I chose to name my business after this part of my name because it’s something that I grew up being very ashamed of—something I tried to hide. In fact, only 3 of my childhood friends knew about it up until a few years ago. Whenever a non-Asian person asked what my “Chinese name” was (not if I had one), I lied and said I didn’t have one. Only in recent years have I felt comfortable enough in sharing this part of myself. Obviously, I’m no longer hiding that part of myself because it’s the friggin name of my business!

In time, I grew to not only accept my identity, but to also promote it. Celebrate it. Scream about it from the rooftop. It’s my culture. My heritage. My identity. Me. And I’m damn proud about it. All this vile hate going around scares me. No doubt about it. But that’s not going to stop me from doing this work. It’s the reason why I do what I do. It’s my wai.