#tahw

UUUUUMMM 

i actually can not think of very many! but, i'd have to say eating a lot of unhealthy foods, picking at my nails, and staying up very late watching youtube videos? oh man just a bunch of normal things!

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When I think about identity, I tend to think in terms of nationality vs. ethnicity. Nationality is a mostly straightforward question. For me, that's American. Some people would stop there and identify themselves according to their nationality. But in the US, because a) we're super proud of our ~melting pot~ of other cultures, and b) because the Americas are a relatively new society compared to Europe/Asia/Africa, we tend to also get asked a lot about our heritage/ethnicity.

Ethnicity is a lot more tricky. Personally, I would say I'm ethnically Taiwanese. And identifying as Taiwanese is always a battle because there are always people who will be like 'oh, so you're Chinese,' and some will come armed with arguments like 'well, your ancestors are from China, so same thing!' (especially from people who like to think we are all part of this one big, happy Han Chinese family).

Yes, I had some ancestors who came from China. I probably had some ancestors from the Netherlands too (from the period of Dutch colonization of Taiwan), but no one seems to be jumping out of their chairs to call me Dutch. Why not? It's just as ridiculous to call me Dutch based on the fact that several generations ago I had a Dutch ancestor as it is to call me Chinese based on the fact that several generations ago I had a Chinese ancestor.