By: Alison

I don’t know about the Shining Li piece. I was born in America and lived in Shanghai for a couple years, and over there most of the local Chinese people I encountered were incredibly adamant that I, as someone ethnically Han Chinese, could not be a real American.

Why do Chinese Americans have to identify as Chinese? Why do they have to love China, the country, when it’s only theirs by birth? Asian Americans have been identified as the Other for so long that it’s hard for them to be accepted as really American, but here’s the thing: they are.

I was born in America, and I grew up in America, and the country I am from is America. My parents may be Chinese, but I’m not, and I think I’m the only person who can decide that.

Besides: it’s not a dichotomy. My Chinese American friends and I have cultural reference points distinct from both the purely Chinese and purely American experiences: Chinese school on Saturdays, parents switching into dialect when they don’t want you to understand, information about our parents’ culture coming more from Avatar: the Last Airbender than any sort of innate connection. It’s pretty cool, actually.