Yes, I’m from China
I’ve been asked where I am from thousands of times. I’m from mainland China and always tell people I’m Chinese whenever they ask me about my nationality.
However, I do have some different feelings when I see others’ reactions. Most of the time, people complimented my English speaking. “Oh, your English is good!” Yes, I mean, thank you, but my family supported me to learn English and study abroad. The nature behind complimenting my English is still that people see me as a foreigner, a person that is different from them. I understand that because I come from another country, but many people say this a lot of times, and that actually brought me less confidence and courage to introduce myself. I remember so clearly that in 2018 when I was in Boston for summer school, a girl was so shocked that I’m from China. “OMG! That’s crazy! Travel for thousands of miles to here just for summer school?” Until now I still don’t know how to interpret the shock she has, but that definitely brings me uncomfortableness.
Right, like what you see on TikTok, I was shouted “Go back to your country” by some weird people in DTLA for no reason.
Currently, whenever someone asks me about my hometown, I somehow felt lacking in self-confidence because I’m 80% sure after asking about my nationality, a question such as “Which part of China?” is coming. When I say a city called Chengdu, they don’t know where it is. Of course, I never blame people who don’t know about my home, just like I don’t know plenty of cities here in the US. However, since I’m from another country, these questions I’ve been asked and the things I’ve experienced do make me feel lacking a sense of belonging and safety (Of course, I could also tell who is friendly and who is not, please don’t be afraid of me!).
Thus, I think I could relate those immigrants to Germany. Maybe they are experiencing more challenges than I do because of the language barrier, their skin color, some embarrassing questions, and some unnecessary surprised faces.
