Marissa Ding
In high school, I was simultaneously comfortable with my Asian identity in my predominantly white surroundings, yet constantly questioning why I cared so much about being Chinese. I am fluent in Mandarin and comfortable in both Chinese and U.S. culture, but for some reason I couldn’t leave it at just that. I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with growing international tensions and the ignorance towards the Chinese diaspora I saw in the peers and adults around me as high school went on. None of the other Chinese-American kids I knew seemed to have this same struggle- why did I care so much?
