Lauren Lisa Ng & Becoming Chinese: Poetry, Faith, and Finding Home (NCB's Radix Live)

What does it mean to become more fully who we are—body, history, faith, family, and all?

In this Radix Live conversation, we welcome Rev. Dr. Lauren Lisa Ng to discuss her latest book, Becoming Chinese: Essays on Self-Discovery from Head to Toe, a personal and beautifully written exploration of identity, belonging, and the sometimes complicated work of coming home to ourselves.

Structured quite literally from head to toe—hair, eyes, ears, mouth, belly, hands, feet, and more— Lauren’s essays trace her journey as a second-generation Chinese American growing up in suburban Pennsylvania and learning, over time, to reclaim parts of herself she had once been encouraged to minimize or leave behind altogether. Along the way, she writes about family and ancestral memory, racism and assimilation, ministry and vocation, food and the body, and the ordinary rituals through which culture is passed from one generation to another.

Yet Becoming Chinese is about more than one person’s cultural identity. As a minister and theologian, Ng asks what it means to become whole: to attend honestly to the histories we inherit, the bodies we inhabit, the communities that form us, and the God who meets us within them.

Join us for a warm and wide-ranging conversation about heritage, faith, race, embodiment, and the sacred—and unfinished—work of becoming who we are.

Rev. Dr. Lauren Lisa Ng is a writer, poet, minister, and activist. An ordained American Baptist minister, she has served in pastoral leadership, community organizing, and denominational life. Her work focuses on Asian American identity, faith, justice, and embodied theology. She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree and lives in Northern California with her family.