Beneath the Surface: Unraveling the Hidden Secrets in Courtney Cheng’s The Mole
I said no. I said no to the doctor who could surgically remove it when I was 8. I said no to my dad who suggested I find a Korean plastic surgeon to assess it when I was 23. I said no to the makeup artist at my friend’s wedding who tried to cover it when I was 29.
That mole felt as much a part of me as did my straight eyelashes, my flat nose, and my wide face. I didn’t like how I looked with it, but I also didn’t know who I’d be without it. I consulted a friend, a Taiwanese woman who had newly arrived in America for graduate school. Would I be doomed with bad luck if I kept it on my face? “You’re in America,” she’d said to me in English. Then in Mandarin, “I wouldn’t let their beliefs affect you so much here.”
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