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Growing up bicultural, I often felt like I didn’t belong. Not completely American because I didn’t have the blond hair and blue eyes. Not completely Chinese because I was so Americanized. There were very few minorities in the town I grew up in and this added to the isolation. There were times (years?) I would feel compelled to reject most things Chinese, in hopes that would make me belong.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve started to embrace my bicultural identity instead of choosing one or the other. These last ten years or so I have come across more and more personal experiences, especially in mainstream media, about the bicultural experience, some from Asian-Americans, some from immigrants from other parts of the world, some from international adoptees. I slowly started to learn that my experience was actually part of a larger collective. This morning I came across this article about a woman’s journey to find her roots in China. The author’s story, in the details, is nothing like my own. But she captures many of the nuances to Chinese culture, especially when it comes to family, and the balancing act in trying to deal with Chinese manners and traditions while trying to be true to your own.

If you’d like to see some of the things described in the article, see also the pictures associated with the story. She also has a blog where she writes more about her Shanghai experience.