photo courtesy D. Guillaime & wikimedia
Deep diving into the identity I inherited.
It was a sunny afternoon. I was sitting on the grass at the University of Washington after a writing class and feeling insecure about my ability to write. What, I wondered, ever made me think I was cut out to be a writer?
I leaned on my elbow and ran my fingers through the grass. Then, out of the blue, my Grandma Nora’s name sprang from my subconscious. I say “out of the blue” because I’ve never met Grandma Nora. To this day, I’ve never even seen a picture of her. But I knew she was Irish, which meant I was one-quarter Irish. And aren’t the Irish known for their literary skills?
The next morning, with a spring in my step, I went shopping for a green dress. It was a plain green dress, and I wore it until it was out of style and looking shabby.
My sister and cousin are more diligent than I am about digging deep into the part of our identity that’s related to our shared ancestry. They’ve spent hours searching through ancestry.com and various dusty archives. My sister even traveled to Ireland and to the Orkneys in Scotland where our grandfather was born.
Expanding horizons.
There’s the identity we’re born with; and then there’s the part of our identity we pick up along the way.
When I married my Chinese husband, Eugene, that didn’t make me Chinese. But proximity to him and my own expanding interests did change me. I read books about Chinese history, I studied Chinese brush painting, I cooked Chinese dishes, and I learned to like kung fu movies and Bruce Lee.
Despite all my northern European ancestors, I haven’t spent any more than a few weeks in Europe. On the other hand, I lived in Asia for almost twenty years.
My blogroll and expanding horizons.
I’ve included in the “Asian Connections” section of my blogroll several bloggers whose connections to Asia have more to do with marriage and interest than with blood.
West Dates East.
Autumn Ashbough from the blog, West Dates East, isn’t Asian, but she is married to a Chinese guy. Andy is second generation, so his main connection to China is food, cooking, and bargain hunting … and his parents. If you like humor, you’ll love reading Autumn’s blog. She writes about the escapades of her Chinese in-laws, her dogs, and her seven siblings, as well as the humorous aspects of daily life for her and Andy. Take a look at a recent post, The Boyfriend Thieves. I think you’ll like it.
iLook China.
Lloyd Lofthouse is a white American author living in California. He’s married to a Chinese woman, also an author, who was born in China. Lloyd’s knowledge about China is wide and deep. On his blog, iLook China, he writes about everything from the Empress Dowager to bullet trains to romance Chinese style.
My blogroll and digging deep.
Jennifer J. Chow.
Jennifer is a Chinese-American writer and blogger. She blogs a lot about writing, but she sets aside Fridays to dig deep into her heritage and write about food. She has introduced her readers to Matcha Crisps, Green Tea Oreos, and Eight Treasure Dessert. She says she’s “like a fortune cookie … twisted into dual selves,” Asian and American. Her blog serves up her words and culture in a written delicacy.
Mabel Kwong.
Mabel is an Asian Australian who writes about what it means to be Asian in Australia. She was born in Australia to Chinese-Malaysian parents. She lives in Melbourne now, but much of her childhood was spent in Malaysia and Singapore. “Today in countless situations,” she says, “I always find myself transitioning between adopting a persona favouring the Chinese values that I’ve been brought up with and a persona that takes on the Australian / Western mindset.”
A sample post from Mabel: Why Are We Afraid Of Standing Up Against Racism?
Traveler on Foot.
Through his photo essays and travel narratives, Glenn Martinez (the Traveler on Foot) digs deep into his own country and culture, the Philippines. His main interests: “Philippine history, Filipino art, architecture, food, culture, folk and tribal art, late 19th century and early 20th century furniture and objects.” His is not a travel blog for the casual traveler with a few days to see the country. It’s a gift of love to his country, its people, and its history.
Glenn usually takes his son on his travels. The boy shows up in many of Glenn’s excellent photos. So, where to begin? How about a trip to Mount Samat to see monuments, a shrine, and a museum in remembrance of the Bataan Death March? Or accompany Glenn and his son on a visit to Baliuag to see antique furniture, a church from the Spanish period, a museum and library housed in a robin-egg blue building from the nineteenth century, and an artisan who does carabao bone inlays.
You mentioned your Irish heritage, but what else are you? Curious! Don’t stop there. Be proud of who you are 🙂
I’m also Scottish, English, Danish, and French. I’m not familiar with Danish writers, but I’m sure there are good writers from all those countries too.
🙂
Love this post, Nikki. Although my ancestry goes back to Europe (France as far as I know) I totally relate to the part of your post when you write that even though you didn’t become Chinese, only because of your husband, you’ve read so much about China in order to know him better. I feel the same way about my life in the US. In order to understand this new part of the person I became living here I had to discover much more than just the daily life (although mundane things teach us a lot too!)
Moving to another country is like travel only more so. Before I went on an Alaskan cruise, I read a couple of books. One was by John Muir, who explored the glaciers back in the day. That little bit of knowledge made the trip more meaningful. I wish I’d read more about the Panama Canal before we took a cruise through it. The experience went too fast, and I was left with tons of questions. Living in the Philippines and then in Vanuatu gave me lots of interesting things to explore. I think you need to know something about the history of a place before you can understand it.
What a great blogroll! And thanks for mentioning me, too 🙂
You’re welcome, Jennifer. I do enjoy keeping up with the people on my blogroll.
It’s always so great to see familiar names and blogs on other familiar blogs 🙂
A great post, Nicki. I too have been thinking about the ancestors on my mother’s side of which we know almost nothing. Because her father was adopted I’ve been considering doing the DNA testing. Opening this post today encouraged and reminded me that I don’t have to wait to get busy on this. I also enjoyed your sharing of these other bloggers.
I’ve also thought of doing ancestry DNA. I don’t imagine my profile will be very interesting. As far as I know, all my ancestors are northern Europeans. But then it would be fun to see what my daughters’ DNA showed if one of them wanted to try it. My husband was Chinese, but he believes one of his grandmothers was Mongolian and a great-grandmother was part Spanish. It would be interesting to see if that showed up.
You have always come across as such a self-assured writer, Nicki. Would have never guessed you had doubts about writing. I guess all of us self-doubt ourselves at some point…and committing to an art or a passion is something that can be daunting – it requires time and effort, a lot of us and a lot of heart. Agree that we pick up bits of our identity along wherever we go. For me, I never thought I’d pick up typical Aussie culture when I moved back to Australia. I’ve always been the hardworking kind of person…but after living here in Australia for a while now, I’ve become much more laid back and make sure I focus on giving myself me-time to make myself happy 🙂
Thanks for the shoutout. Very kind of you 🙂
On your blog, Mabel, you do a good job of explaining aspects of your cultural heritage to the rest of us, and you also show us your Aussie side. The first thing I noticed about your Aussie side was your easy familiarity with Melbourne as shown in your lovely photographs. Your recent post giving tips on how to enjoy a music concert also sounds like something you picked up in Australia.
Thank you so much, Nicki. It always fascinates me to hear how others describe my blog and writing. It makes me wonder what I am actually saying from hearing what others say about me – and I think that applies to a lot of us 🙂
There are some fascinating blogs out there, aren’t there, Nicki? I’ll make time to visit the one that’s caught my eye. It’s funny the heritage thing. Some people are compelled to dig deep. I kind of hold it at arm’s length. 🙂 🙂
My ancestors are not the focus of my attention, but if one of them has an interesting story, I like to hear it. On the other hand, I’m not compelled to do research on the names and dates of birth of family members who came before.
Thanks for stopping by, Jo. I’m glad you found a blog you want to visit.
I’d visit them all, Nicki, but you know that ticking clock 🙂
Thanks for expanding your blog rolls and our horizons.
I feel bad that I didn’t set up a blog roll sooner. I’m glad I finally got around to it.
Thanks so much, Nicki! You are too kind. I will have to check out Jennifer and Glenn. I’ve missed their blogs, I guess. Which is shocking, especially if there are stories about food.
I think I met Jennifer through Evelyn Hollingue who was putting together a group of twelve writers for an ebook sale. I met Glenn when I was writing a post about the Manila Chinese Cemetery, and I needed some photos to go with it. I found his photos online and asked him for permission to use them.
I’ve been following Autumn for a while and her families, both inherited by marriage and born into, make mine feel normal, almost! I will check out more of your suggestions.
Aw, man, TWO shoutouts from TWO awesome bloggers! What a nice way to start the day.
Autumn has some excellent, interesting material to use for her blog. And she knows how to make good use of it.
I love how you were proactive about getting past writer insecurity, Nicki. Thank you for introducing us to more great bloggers. Will check them out!
How is your WIP coming along?
My work-in-progress is slowly moving forward. I’m still working on the first draft. My faith in it rises and falls.