Write a short story that describes your sense of home and the values and stories that you use to connect yourself to your home.

“But where are you really from?”

I am often approached with this question having previously answered “Where are you from?” with, “From here (Vancouver)” As if I answered the original question incorrectly. I am of Asian descent, but to say I am from anywhere other than here would be incorrect.

I travelled to China with my mother and sister when I was ten, and it was completely foreign to me. I was quickly overwhelmed by the humidity and the density of Hong Kong, and could not imagine living in rural China, with its abundance of mosquitoes and lack of toilets.

Growing up, I remember my mother telling me stories about growing up in a rural village in China. She told me of times when it rained, that the water would run so high that she could not make it to school. She told me about raising animals in her yard, and eating them for dinner on special occasions. She told me about moments she spent reading by lamplight, for lack of electricity. These are my mother’s stories.

She was introduced to my father, a first-generation Asian-Canadian, through a relative. They wrote each other letters with the help of various relatives who helped my father translate his words into Chinese, which he, to this day, is not fluent in. They fell in love, and my mother immigrated to Vancouver to start a new life, so the story goes. This is my parents’ story.

My father grew up in a Vancouver Special in East Van. My sister and I grew up in that same house with a traditionally Chinese mother and an Anglicized father. We grew up eating both lasagna and traditional Chinese meals for dinner, we watched Global News in the evening alongside TVB dramas and martial arts movies, and we went to Chinese school on the weekends but spent the summers at tennis camp or at Scouts. This is our family’s story.

In The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, Thomas King says, “Everyone knew who Indians were. Everyone knew what they looked like. Even Indians. . . [But] I didn’t know how I wanted to represent Indians (53).” My relationship to race have been similar, and I am continuing to learn how to discuss my relationship to my race that do not isolate other experiences.

A few semesters ago in a literature class, my literature professor asked whether any of us could read a pre-translated version of a poem in Pound’s ‘Cantos’. I felt a dozen heads turn in my direction. I struggle with speaking and writing Chinese, and am often confronted by a certain shame by not meeting peoples’ expectations of my ability. For this reason, I felt particularly empathetic towards Francine Burning’s discussion around Tokenization.

“[I]t is crucial to acknowledge the ways in which color functions socially and it’s relationship to a person’s social position, and one way that it functions acutely is in a person’s experience of discrimination.”
– What I Learned In Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom

I’ve been asked before whether I have encountered racism, and when I answer, “yes” sometimes people are shocked. It’s rare, but nothing quite beats the experience of hearing, “go back to where you came from.” These adverse experiences have contributed to a hesitation in acknowledging my racial background. In addition, it cannot be ignored that the Western narrative has been privileged in the media over those of minorities. I feel that it is important to remind ourselves that though each of our experiences are legitimate, we must consider how our individual backgrounds and identity colour our way of seeing.

I am still learning how best to identify with my background. In the past, my response to the “but where are you really from?”question was often met with indignation because it implied that I did not belong, and reminded me of the pains of ‘otherness’. I realized a few years ago that it is more of a linguistic fumbling than an attack on my racial background. Nowadays my answer is, “My mom is from China, and my dad was born here.” I understand that there are intersections in one’s relationship to home, and that it is a fluid concept- it is not wholly spacial or racial, or even singular. I am curious to see how with increasing globalization, travel, and media on the web, one’s experience with their notion of home will change.

Works Cited:

Burning, Francine. “Session 1: Francine Burning, 21 February 2007.” What I Learned In Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom. Web. 06 June 2016.

Brown, Brené. “Brené Brown on Empathy.” The RSA, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Web. 06 June 2016.

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough: Anansi Press. 2003. Print.