At this point in my life, I am pretty confident in my ability to nonchalantly state that I'm Thai, Chinese and American. But when I was growing up I had a lot of identity issues -- figuring out who I was or where I belonged was a big deal. I never felt "American" because I'm of Asian descent. And among Asians, it was hard to figure out where I belonged, with the Thais or the Chinese. (There isn't any real "Asian" solidarity, but rather union among national descent.) I didn't speak or write Chinese but had a lot of exposure to the culture. I read and spoke Thai but had very little exposure to the culture. Blah, blah, blah.
Today, I find myself thinking a lot about whether my bi-racial and multi-cultural children will have the same angst towards their identity. I read somewhere that these children tend to choose one or the other culture/race to identify with. I'm hoping that as the human race progresses, all these differences become insignificant; we become more of a rainbow and we don't have to choose.
How can I bring this rainbow to my kids? I think and dream a lot about moving to Hawaii. I heard that mixed race couples and children are common there. I'd like my chidren to grow up in an environment full of rainbow people like them.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Chasing rainbows
Posted by Cassandra Jupiter on 1/24/2008
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2 comments:
hey, i did not know you were Chinese too.
Hi there! "....Chinese too", does that refer to you're Chinese too or I'm Chinese too among other identities and nationalities.
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