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BILL AND HELEN'S STORY

May fourth, two thousand twenty one

Our reason for immigration was simple. Having two young children in Hong Kong, we wanted to afford them the best education possible. There are 5 state universities. With so many applicants and so few spots, we knew that the best way to ensure our kids having more academic success would require us to leave the country. As luck would have it, immigration into the US at the time for people in Hong Kong was a bit simpler. It was by lottery. We entered into the system, not even thinking we had a chance, but then we got the call that our name/number came up. There wasn’t time to really reflect or think about whether to take the opportunity. We knew we had to jump on it. And so we decided to leave the kids with their paternal grandparents while we came to the US to find work. Honestly, we did not come to the US because we were in search of a better life for ourselves, because at the time, our income and quality of life in HK was okay, but we knew that to ensure the quality of life for our kids in the future (particularly with schools), we had to sacrifice the comforts of living with our own familiar homogenous community and language for a new country with a new language and adapt to new customs.

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JANE'S STORY

May fifth, two thousand twenty one

"My husband had received his PhD and found a very good job, which is why I moved to the United States. So, I have two options: I can stay home and raise my kids or I can get my education. So when I was 32 or 33, I got my master’s degree, because I cannot be a housewife forever. There is nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't for me. America, for us, for me, is a foreign country- a foreign language. When I come to this country, I could just say “hello, how are you,” but then people would start talking in long sentences to me and I said “Oh, WHAT? 我不会说英文” When I lived in China, we learned English, but it was not that important to us, so I didn’t know how to speak it well. I knew that I loved this country, and my kids were born in this country, so I had to learn English- I have to go to study, I have to go to college to get my degree. After I had my two babies, every day I just slept 4 or 5 hours and study. Every day..."

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REN'S STORY

May sixth, two thousand twenty one

“My parents immigrated to the US in their early twenties from China-- this is an abridged version of their complicated story. Basically, my mom immigrated here by herself because, due to the strict immigration laws, my dad wasn’t able to come with her even with his master’s degree. It was just really hard to get in. My mom had a PhD so she came on an educational scholarship type arrangement. So it was difficult because they had just gotten married and now had to do long distance. And you can imagine that the situation was even more complicated because my mom barely spoke English and now had to figure everything out on her own. They immigrated to the suburbs of Illinois, so there were just no Asians, not a lot of diversity, obviously riddled with racism. People definitely gave her shit for not speaking English well and treated her poorly. So she has a bunch of stories about the racism, but that’s more of her story to tell..."

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MR. AND MRS. WANG'S STORY

May twenty first, two thousand twenty one

“A teenage girl walked into a store to buy candy. The store owner studied her and asked, “What are you? A half chink?” She ended up becoming a community advocate; that was how I met her. Romana was the community relations person at a neighborhood organization in Philadelphia Chinatown. Her father is a retired college professor managing a Chinese restaurant in the Northeast Philadelphia. Although she identifies herself as a Chinese, facial features that she inherited from her Caucasian mother gave away that she is a mixed-race person. Romana was the one who introduced me to <eurasiannation.com>, <eurasiannation.proboard.com>, and other related websites and sensitized my awareness to that aspect of our lives. I, on the other hand, grew up in a homogeneous society. Although there were differences among people from different walks of lives and those spoke different dialogues, the concept of judging people by the color of the skin was quite foreign to me until I arrived in Philadelphia in 1968."

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JENINE'S STORY

May twenty first, two thousand twenty one

"I’m grateful to have grown up with immigrant parents who supported the fact that I would, in one way or another, end up on a creative career path. Because to be honest, I don’t think I would’ve gotten by in this industry without their encouragement. There were so few fellow POC writers around me back in film school, and when you narrow it down to female Southeast Asian American writers? It felt like such a lonely and intimidating journey, where I felt my voice would be stifled by a looming, white male-dominated industry. However, the company I kept played a huge role in helping me realize that my identity did not disqualify me from having a voice worth listening to. And because of this, I grew more confident in my storytelling, and more excited because with every person my partner and I reached through our writing, the more we could create opportunity for other minorities to be seen and heard. In the present, even with the title of COO and co-creator of Tubby Nugget..."

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