This is Sideor, a podcast from a Smithsonian with support from PRX.

I'm Tony Cohn.

Who were the very first people who helped you solidify your identity? I mean the people who really influenced the way you see

yourself and how you interact with the world. For most of us, that's the role our families play.

But in this episode of Side Door, we hear from a writer whose childhood experiences with a family member, her grandmother, make a strong case for why family members aren't always the best identity shapers.

Annelese Chen is Taiwanese American, West Coast raised, and among many other things, she's the

Paris Review's Molusk correspondent.

There her essays are equal parts, science, history, art, and memoir.

And her experimental debut novel, So Many Olympic Exertions, was released in June of 2017.

We met Analice when she visited when she visited DC this summer for the Smithsonian's first ever Asian American Literature Festival.

For three days, some of the best writers in the country converged on Washington for a weekend full of creative expression,

cultural celebration, and camaraderie.

Anelice visited us in the Side Door studio and read her essay, Who Haunts?

It makes for a different kind of Side Door episode. and read her essay, Who Haunts?

It makes for a different kind of Side Door episode,

but we hope you'll enjoy this story as much as we did.

After this quick break. As promised, here's Annelle's Chen with her story, Who Haunts?

Just a note before we begin.

The story isn't about mature subject matter, but it contains some sentences that might give sensitive listeners pause.

Once when I was in fourth grade, my grandma called me over to tell me that according to her four pillars of destiny astrological calculations,

my Batsu chart made me susceptible to seeing ghosts.

She said this like I'd caught a disease and I should live my life accordingly from that point forward.

...