Love Letter to a Chinese-American Adoptee
By Kate Byrne
You may be treated like you are part of a monolithic group
But identity formation is nuanced and unique to you
You are culturally American, ethnically Chinese
Raised as white, labeled “honorary white”
Your adoptive family may ignore your race
Or lovingly engage with it
Do you feel grateful or conflicted about being adopted?
Your friends may think of you as white
And ignore your embodied person of color status
“Asian, but the whitest Asian ever, but I can’t just throw on a white mask”
Do experience anti-Asian racism?
Do you feel guilty for claiming you are Chinese because you do not feel connected to your heritage?
Do you face a “dilemma of authenticity”, a “cultural limbo”?
Not white enough or Asian enough
To white strangers, you are Chinese,
To Chinese strangers, you are American
In China, or to Chinese immigrants, you are “less Chinese”
Do you feel too privileged for some groups and too oppressed for others?;
You may be assigned a narrative of being “damaged”
But really, you are resilient
You may be told of your “not-enoughness”
But you define who you are
You are loved, you are whole, you are enough
