Identity

In America, I'm Chinese.
In Taiwan, I'm American.
I identify as an Asian American.

When people in Taiwan ask me where I'm from, I say I'm American. Because of my looks they always want to know what my parents are. I reply that my mom is Taiwanese and that my dad is from Mainland Chinese (and sometimes throw in that he grew up in Taipei). This satisfies Taiwanese quite well, as they can now understand my accent (terrible American) with my looks (Chinese).

However, when I went to China and was asked the same and gave the same response, I would get some funny looks. Distinguishing the fact that my mom is Taiwanese, to them, was redundant - being Taiwanese is being Chinese after all! To them, Taiwan is just another province. So I should just say that my parents are Chinese, instead of one is this and one is that.

Hmmm. This ignores the fact that my mom can speak Taiwanese and my dad doesn't, that my mom's family came from the mainland many generations ago, whereas my dad was the first, that my dad's side speaks Mandarin with something closer to a Beijing accent and my mom sounds Taiwanese.

It's like saying "I'm American" ignores the fact that I'm also of Asian decent (and all that brings with it, growing up in a mostly white American suburb). And saying "I'm Chinese" doesn't make it clear whether you're FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) or an ABC (American Born Chinese). Even people technically within a category may not have the culture associated with it (I grew up on the low end for Chinese culture of an ABC).

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My teacher has mentioned something similar - that in America she is Chinese, in China she is Taiwanese, and in Taiwan she is Taipei-ese. Like my dad, she was born in the mainland and then came to Taiwan as a young child. She also bore children in the US and lived there for quite a while. She is quite liberal and has a mixed identity, not easily labeled.