My Identity Crisis

Hello. My name is Michelle Tran. Anyone who knows even a little bit of knowledge regarding Vietnamese culture knows that Tran is a very common Vietnamese name. Strangers will assume I am Vietnamese, and I thought I was Vietnamese too. However, last summer when I was visiting Vietnam, my grandparents told me that I am not Vietnamese at all. My great grandparents from both sides of my family immigrated from China to Vietnam in the early 1920s. When they moved to Vietnam, they changed their last name from Chen to Tran. As a result, both of my parents grew up in Vietnam and assimilated to Vietnamese culture.
Growing up in the United States, I spoke Vietnamese at home and had Vietnamese family friends. However, I should have known that I wasn’t entirely Vietnamese. I would call my dad Baba instead of the Vietnamese way of saying Dad, Bo. I always knew a little bit of Chinese, but I spoke Vietnamese fluently. For some reason, my parents never fully explained to me that we were actually Chinese, and it didn’t click in my head that I was Chinese even though I understood a bit of Chinese. Whenever anyone asked me what my ethnicity was, without hesitation I would respond that I was Vietnamese. For so long I believed I was Vietnamese. My last name is Vietnamese, I spoke Vietnamese, and I ate Vietnamese food at home. When I found out that I wasn’t actually 100% Vietnamese, it came as a huge shock. Ever since, whenever someone asks me what my ethnicity is, I hesitate to answer. For so long I would respond that I was Vietnamese, but now I know that I am actually Chinese. To lessen the confusion for myself and others, I just answer that I am Vietnamese-Chinese.
Although learning that I was actually Chinese was extremely confusing for me, it stemmed my interest in learning more about ancestry and culture. On my own time, I love to learn more about other cultures and they all connect at some point in history. I realized that I genuinely enjoy learning about culture, and now I am currently considering a career path in the field of ancestry because I think it is really important to pursue something you actually enjoy learning about.
