Right after I finished the first interview, I wanted to ask more people about this whole identity issue.
Would other Third Culture Kids feel confused as we are? I went back on Skype and called my friend who attends a college in Palo Alto, but was born in Honolulu, and lived a majority of her life in Taipei. “Are you busy?” “Depends on what.” “Do you consider yourself a Third Culture kid?” “Yap.” “When people ask you the question ‘Where’s home?’ how do you normally answer?” “Taiwan.” “You spent a good chunk of time in Hawaii though. Why is that?” “Hawaii was too long ago, it was just my childhood. I didn’t really keep in touch with my friends there, and my family is in Taiwan.” “Growing up, did you have any hard time identifying yourself?” “Growing up... wait, like how old” “Just any period in your formative years.” Caitlin started talking after a long pause. “Hmm. I grew up in Hawaii, so I never really thought about identifying myself because it’s already really diverse there. No one ever seemed out of place. School had mandatory church so I just followed along and became Christian. We celebrated holidays from all sorts of cultures, but holidays were just fun celebrations and it didn’t really feel linked to idea of identity. Even when I went back to Taiwan, I played with local kids. Like, children just play together. The identity thing got confusing once I got college.” “What do you mean?” I knew exactly what she meant, but I asked her to elaborate. “I just never even thought about it, until like the thought of going to an American university eventually. After being in such a homogenous Taiwanese community, and then it’s like, “Oh my god”, and I don’t really fit in Taiwan either. People on the subway stare at you whenever you speak in English. I don’t know, it just hit me one day.” “I had that exact thought!” |
“It’s that moment when you grow up and suddenly the world’s different.”
“I agree. That really hit me hard to. That’s why I decided to do my autoethnography project on Third Culture Kid identity. What traits do you think characterize a TCK?” “Hmm... I don’t really know...” “It’s tough right? I thought about it too. Well I guess I have more friends on Facebook than like 99% of the world, and my circle of best friends is as politically, racially, and religiously diverse as the United Nations.” “Haha, yeah I have over a thousand too. Also, with influence from different cultures you have this newly created way of living that doesn’t perfectly fit in with either culture. Dude, honestly though, it’s really hard to define a TCK. It just happens.” “Yeah, my family celebrates Korean holidays but eat Chinese mooncake during the Mid-Autumn festival. I speak Korean to my parents but my sister and I talk in English. I received American education but as soon as I walked out the gate, I heard people speaking Chinese everywhere.” “Mhm! I can also curse convincingly in at least five different languages. And I also know that McDonald’s tastes drastically different from country to country.” “Also, I’m really good at calculating time differences because I have to do it every time I call my parents.” “Let’s see, there’s gotta be something else... My passport looks like it’s been through hell and back. “I know my way around jet-lag recovery.” “This is mind-blowing” said Caitlin. “There are so many signs that we don’t even realize.” BACK TO HOMEPAGE BACK TO AUTOETHNOGRAPHY BACK TO ENGLISH 101 |