My name is ZiHeng Wang. I’m currently 13 years old and I'm from Fujian, China. I moved to 'Oahu about 8 years ago, in 2016. I speak Chinese Mandarin and English. My favorite hobbies are video games, hanging out with friends, and training. The special thing about my family is that we don't really celebrate any holidays except for the lunar new year, because of our family's Chinese traditions.

I really like it here in 'Oahu, because it’s very convenient to go everywhere like groceries stores, to school, and even the beach. Everything here only takes a short amount of time to drive to. Another thing I like about living in America is the laws and the Constitutional Amendments, because they protect people, and make things fair. We didn’t really have these laws in China. I prefer to live in America more than China because there’s better insurance and better hospitals. Money is easier to earn and most of the things are way cheaper here than in China.

I have a very unfortunate story during the COVID-19 pandemic tied to Chinese medicine. Two years ago, I got very sick from the Corona virus and didn’t get vaccinated because I was too young for it. I had to consume this medicine from China designed for COVID but it tasted absolutely terrible. One day, I drank the medicine with milk, which I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do. Because of that, I got food poisoned, and I was vomiting the whole day. I eventually got sent to the hospital. I was there for several hours, but I got out at 3 am and I was fine.

I personally don’t like Chinese medicine compared to western medicine because If you go to China, these medicines are not credible. I think a lot of them don’t have a scientific basis. I think the government provides better for American citizens living here in America and people here don’t always realize it. They should appreciate it.

© ZiHeng. All rights reserved. If you are interested in quoting this story, contact the national team and we can put you in touch with the author’s teacher.