Moving to my birth country… after 24 years 🇨🇳

thank you for sharing this video made me cry but also give me hope. Your storytelling is the best part of the internet.

Thanks Leah <3 The part about time with our parents being limited struck a chord with me. My father died in January suddenly (I'm 29) and am now navigating a life without him, when I thought I'd have him for much longer. Take care of yourself, and love your family every day <3 <3

this one hit close to home. Thanks for being open and sharing Leah <3

Im Chinese living in Australia, I’m crying watching this while eating some rice balls. My heart aches knowing that I can never be in both worlds at the same time😢 so much grief, loss and nostalgia.

Hi from Beth in California, 32. With the risk of sounding dumb, I want to share… my mother was visiting my house today. She is great, but she worries too much and talks about her problems - even small ones. Lol. When I put your video on TV, she was so interested in watching and listening. She is 63. When the video ended she talked about how pretty and interesting you are. It was a nice moment🙂 New subscriber! …I don’t know what you believe about yourself and your channel, friend. But please know that you are amazing and important ❤️ Beth

this made me cry :') i love your storytelling, i hope you continue to share your journeys and thoughts with us for a long time. it is much much more important to us than you think <3

wow this couldn’t have come at a better time! i recently came back from a 3 week trip to the philippines after not visiting for 6 years. it is my parents’ home country and is also where all of my relatives live. the past few days i’ve been reminiscing the memories i made there and missing my relatives so much. when i got there i made it a priority to actually put in effort to speak to my relatives and form a close bond with them since before this i usually struggled with communication every time i visited due to the language barrier and it made me feel distant from my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. i was someone who could understand their ethnic language but struggled at speaking it. so prior to this trip, i made sure i improved my speaking skills in tagalog and it ended up being so worth it! i had actual long, full conversations with my cousins for the first time ever, i talked to my grandmothers more often and asked questions back. i made the initiative to be the first one to start conversations and i truly don’t regret it! the trip ended with me crying as i had formed close relationships with my loved ones and learnt more about them. i didn’t want to leave! looking back i felt so full there since i was surrounded with family and just the liveliness of philippines itself: the busy streets, so many kids playing about, the food. i also feel like i’m a different version of me there in a good way. the past few days i’ve also been wondering the same questions you did, “what would life be like if i had grown up there?” but i’ve stopped dwelling on that and started thinking about where do i want my life to be in the future? i think in the near future i would want to move to the philippines even just for a few months to stay in touch with family and explore a version of me that i could’ve potentially been.

when you were singing karaoke with your dad and he kept smiling at you and laughing :,-) that was such a precious moment

your openness is such an eclipsing gift

the fact that I’m in China rn when u released this video and I always do a lot of thinking after watching ur videos… will forever look forward to all your uploads

having that footage from when you were a baby is so special <3 and idk why you going the graduation made me so emotional 😭 i realized that i have never been able to go to my cousins' graduations, weddings, and they have never come to mine. I'm so glad you were able to share that milestone with them <3

This was so immensely beautiful brought tears to my eyes this morning. As an American Born Chinese I never grew up in China but there was a point in my life spending summers in Shenzhen that it felt like another home. It feels in many ways growing older sometimes what we allow to become a home becomes louder, but I'm choosing to listen to that child self still running around the Shenzhen apartment complex greeting the aunties, uncles, kids, and security guards 🥹

Omg, I’m turning 27 this year too and I’m also moving to my dad’s country so we can be closer! I’m excited but also terrified to be so far away from my mum and all my friends. This video came at a perfect time, you’ve made me feel super reassured Leah❤️❤️

leah I have been watching you since covid and your videos only get better. they’re fulfilled with so much wisdom on one hand and fun on the other, I feel like I’m hanging out with close friend. anxiety, stress, fear, you actually helped me a lot with going throughout those things. thank you and wish you luck on your next journey!

Absolutely feel you. Going back to my parent's home country and particularly learning the language really helped me connect with not only my parents but extended family in a whole new way

I like Alipay more than Wechat pay. Ordering food through Alipay is better. I am seriously jealous of you being able to move back to China. I am not Chinese, I am married to a Chinese woman from Changsha. Because of work, the longest time I get to spend in China is 5 or 6 weeks. Everytime a visit a different city in China, I fall in love with it, but I consider Changsha to be my second home, but I wish it were my first home. My wife's home town is Liuyang (very close to Changsha), so somehow I have become emotionally attached to a city. The first few times I was in China, there was some massive culture shock, not to mention the worst jet lag ever, coming from the U.S.. As a father of daughters, and a Buddhist, I know your father must be very happy to have you there.

Leah, i cried watching this. I grew up in hk and china but lived abroad my entire adult years, i´ve been nomading like you in europe and latin america and call new york my home. For the longest time I felt like i didn´t fit into that society, and i used to have a love and hate relationship with my chinese identity. However, the more im exposed to other cultures, the more i think about my own. At this stage of my life, I came to the point where I don´t have to belong to any nationality and I am who i am, it´s a truly free feeling to be and comfortable with my global citizen identity. maybe the longest time i tried to hard to make my own community and reality abroad and chinese people always say ÿou only come back when you failed abroad. I think that quote stuck with me for the longest time. But i´m more and more excited to go back to china soon ( haven´t seen it for 6 years), i would love to see how my nomad perspective change how i view my own country. Thank you for sharing leah.

you are such a gift to the world~ thank you for making the internet + planet a more beautiful place leah!!

you’re like a big sister to my soul. i love you so so much

Visiting the motherland is a constant urge in my soul