{"id":6365,"date":"2017-08-06T04:00:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=6365"},"modified":"2017-08-02T16:18:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T23:18:36","slug":"identity-digging-deep-expanding-horizons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/identity-digging-deep-expanding-horizons\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity: Digging Deep & Expanding Horizons."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

photo courtesy D. Guillaime & wikimedia<\/p><\/div>\n

Deep diving into the identity I inherited.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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?<\/p>\n

I leaned on my elbow and ran my fingers through the grass. Then, out of the blue, my Grandma Nora\u2019s name sprang from my subconscious. I say \u201cout of the blue\u201d because I\u2019ve never met Grandma Nora. To this day, I\u2019ve never even seen a picture of her. But I knew she was Irish, which meant I was one-quarter Irish. And aren\u2019t the Irish known for their literary skills?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

My sister and cousin are more diligent than I am about digging deep into the part of our identity that\u2019s related to our shared ancestry. They\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

Expanding horizons.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s the identity we\u2019re born with; and then there\u2019s the part of our identity we pick up along the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When I married my Chinese husband, Eugene, that didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Despite all my northern European ancestors, I haven\u2019t spent any more than a few weeks in Europe. On the other hand, I lived in Asia for almost twenty years.<\/p>\n

My blogroll and expanding horizons.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve included in the \u201cAsian Connections\u201d section of my blogroll several bloggers whose connections to Asia have more to do with marriage and interest than with blood.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 West Dates East.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Autumn Ashbough from the blog, West Dates East, isn\u2019t 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 \u2026 and his parents. If you like humor, you\u2019ll love reading Autumn\u2019s 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<\/a>. I think you\u2019ll like it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 iLook China.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lloyd Lofthouse is a white American author living in California. He\u2019s married to a Chinese woman, also an author, who was born in China. Lloyd\u2019s knowledge about China is wide and deep. On his blog, iLook China, he writes about everything from the Empress Dowager<\/a> to bullet trains to romance Chinese style.<\/p>\n

My blogroll and digging deep.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jennifer J. Chow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/a>, and Eight Treasure Dessert. She says she\u2019s \u201clike a fortune cookie \u2026 twisted into dual selves,\u201d Asian and American. Her blog serves up her words and culture in a written delicacy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mabel Kwong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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. \u201cToday in countless situations,\u201d she says, \u201cI always find myself transitioning between adopting a persona favouring the Chinese values that I\u2019ve been brought up with and a persona that takes on the Australian \/ Western mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sample post from Mabel: Why Are We Afraid Of Standing Up Against\u00a0Racism?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Traveler on Foot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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: \u201cPhilippine history, Filipino art, architecture, food, culture, folk and tribal art, late 19th century and early 20th century furniture and objects.\u201d His is not a travel blog for the casual traveler with a few days to see the country. It\u2019s a gift of love to his country, its people, and its history.<\/p>\n

Glenn usually takes his son on his travels. The boy shows up in many of Glenn\u2019s excellent photos. So, where to begin? How about a trip to Mount Samat<\/a> to see monuments, a shrine, and a museum in remembrance of the Bataan Death March? \u00a0Or accompany Glenn and his son on a visit to Baliuag<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317,1446,1590,4],"tags":[1593,1596,1591,1595,387,1592,1074,1597,1598,1594],"class_list":["post-6365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-cultural-identity-asian-americans","category-identity","category-writing","tag-ancestry","tag-blogroll","tag-geneology","tag-ilook-china","tag-interracial-marriage","tag-irish-writers","tag-jennifer-chow","tag-mabel-kwong","tag-traveler-on-foot","tag-west-dates-east"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1EF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4853,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/4853\/","url_meta":{"origin":6365,"position":0},"title":"Whatever happened to My Irish Grandma?","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"March 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Two weeks ago I wrote about my Grandma Rose, the grandmother who lived just across town and was good at everything she tried. Today, in honor of Saint Patrick\u2019s Day. I\u2019d like to write about my Irish grandmother, Norah. With Saint Patrick\u2019s Day only a few days off, the stores\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"St_Patricks_Day_decor_games_H","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/St_Patricks_Day_decor_games_H.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3330,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/photography\/my-irish-inspiration-and-the-first-day-of-spring\/","url_meta":{"origin":6365,"position":1},"title":"My Irish Inspiration and the First Day of Spring.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"March 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Springtime. At last. But first, before the Spring Equinox arrives, it\u2019s \u2026 SAINT PATRICK'S DAY. 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Born in the US, John had to grow\u00a0 into his identity as an Asian American. 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But I've heard that in some families, children celebrate both their own birthday and their Saint's Day. Since Nicole (my name) is a form of Nicholas, today is my day. My parents had no idea they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "identity"","block_context":{"text":"identity","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/identity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1300-e1607231642604.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5319,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/the-letters-my-mom-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":6365,"position":5},"title":"The Letters My Mom Saved.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 When we lived in the Philippines and later in Vanuatu, I wrote letters to my family every week. And every week after my parents read my letters, Mom filed them away. That\u2019s a lot of letters. 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