LIMINAL

By Maggie Fang

Published April 2026

“Liminal” refers to a state of being in between, a threshold where something is changing, but has not yet fully become.

For teenagers, we are no longer children, yet not fully adults. Our identities are still forming, shifting between what we have been and what we are becoming.

For many of us, this in-between state extends beyond age. For those born between cultures, liminality becomes cultural. It is not only about growing up, but also about navigating identity in a place that is not entirely our own.

Col Morley - Photo & Video maker

Growing up in America while carrying Eastern family values, we move constantly between different systems of thinking, different expectations, and different ways of understanding the world. We learn to translate not only language, but also behavior, emotion, and ways of belonging. At the same time, we are often trying to assimilate into a different system. In this process, we may find ourselves existing between two worlds, without fully belonging to either.

But liminality is not simply a space of confusion. It is also a space of possibility.

Anthropologist Victor Turner described liminality as a moment where structure dissolves and new forms can emerge. As he writes:

“Liminality is the realm of pure possibility.”

In this uncertain space, identities are not fixed.

It is here that transformation becomes possible.

This issue approaches liminality not as a problem to resolve, but as a condition to observe.

Through art, cultural reflection, and everyday experiences, we explore how identity is shaped within this in-between space. We look at how different cultural values influence the way we create and understand art.

Rather than asking where we belong, this issue asks a different question:

What does it mean to exist in between?

And how does that space shape who we are becoming?