Do people often ask you these questions:

• where are you from?
• what are you?
• were you born here?

Now, how many of us wish we had a dollar for every time we heard that before? And why is it so important for people to <know> the answers to these questions? Does that help them place us in some sort of category? Are we filed away in the deep recesses of their minds as: hongkong/chinese/notbornherebutraisedhere? What assumptions do they automatically draw from these answers? What stereotypes are immediately attached to us by us handing out these answers?

People for the most part don't mean any harm when asking those questions but I suppose in their eyes, we are still the exotic foreigner smoking opium or perhaps we all own laundry stores. It's also funny how many of the people who ask those same questions are people of Asian descent. Maybe they want to know if we are allies or enemies. Or if our historical paths have been defiled by the other.

I think for the majority of us Asian Americans either born or raised in the good ole US of A, there's no real one correct answer to those questions above (except for #3). And perhaps it doesn't just apply to us Asian Americans, how about the Asian Australians, Asian Europeans, Asian South Americans, Asian Africans etc etc? Aren't we all part of this thing called a global soul?

Here's what I mean. Most of us, don't fit that cookie cutterish background anymore. We are spawned from ancestors overseas, cultural ties to the ancient and exotic, emotional ties to both the past and the present. Each one of us has a different tale to tell and none of them will be identical. Similar yes. Identical no.

Not many (if any) of us can use a simple answer such as "i'm chinese i'm japanese. i'm korean. i'm indian. i'm vietnamese. i'm filipino. etc." anymore to answer who we are, what defines us and how it represents us.

A global soul, that's what I am. I was born in Hong Kong, raised in Los Angeles, traveled to places extending the boundaries of my immediate locale, wanted to learn languages beyond my native tongue. I am a marginal (wo)man. I live on the borders of cultures and ethnicities. I don't claim one as my own because they all shape me as who I am.

So please, just because I'm a: hongkong/Chinese/notbornherebutraisedhere in your mind, that's not all there is to me.

Accept it.

I'm out.

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