My Racial Identity

Race, Ethnicity, nationality, and culture are the basis of ethnic studies. Race is an identity given from society based on appearances. People would see as Asian. Ethnicity is where one’s ancestor are originally from. I’m a taishanese descendant. Nationality is the country that one sides with and I’m American. Culture are the ways of being and seeing and I’m culturally Chinese. My racial identity is seen as Asian. All of my life I’ve known and considered myself as Asian. I grew up in an Asian community and went to Chinese preschools. Then I went to an elementary school filled with mostly Asian students. People at my school were either Asian or Asian mixed. Only two or three students were white in my class. Growing up in an Asian community limited my options in meeting other people outside of my race. I was always comfortable making friends with people of the same race as me but with others it was different. It was outside of my comfort zone to make friends of different races.
Both of my grandparents are Chinese and are of Taishanese descent except for my paternal grandfather. He is from Zhongshan. My mom is originally from Hong Kong and my dad was born here. I grew up in Chinese household and picked up the language. In my household my family spoke Cantonese and my paternal grandmother spoke taishanese. Since both were very similar I learned to understand them. I also picked up the language from watching Chinese dramas at my paternal grandmother’s house. My nationality is American. I was borned and raised in San Francisco. Since San Francisco is an Asian community I’ve been able to get more in touch with my chinese background living here. Even though I have visited many places outside of San Francisco. I still consider it my home because of all the memories I’ve made and I’ve only lived in San Francisco. This is my home and the place I belong to. No place I would rather call home than