Tuesday, February 26, 2013

"I'm half-Chinese"

My niece...she's blonde, tall, and very, very ummm...Caucasian...

She came to visit us over the weekend. I love, love this little girl.  She adores me. Seriously. She told me so. And even more so after I heard this story...but first, we've got to time travel back to 1982.

I was growing up in a town where in school, my family was the only Asian in school.  We stood out. There was no talk of diversity or embracing different races like I hear nowadays.

Typical of all kids, I didn't want to look or be different than my peers. Teachers had problems pronouncing my name, I had to leave class for ESL. Kids made fun of me when my parents would speak to me in Vietnamese...because they were kids.

So, I remembered when my uncle married a white lady and I loved her. I was convinced I was half-white because she was now a part of our family.  I started telling my friends this.  They of course made MORE fun of me because duh...I had dark skin, small eyes, blackest hair...nothin' like my blonde-haired, blue-eyed aunt.

Back to this past weekend.

My niece and I had a day together on Friday and we went shopping and brought lunch to S.E. and Koo's school to have lunch with them. On the way to school she tells me her friends at school made fun of her because she told them she was half-Chinese. She told them because of me, she's half-Asian.  Her friends asked her why her hair was not black, why her skin was not brown, and why she doesn't have brown eyes. As she is telling me the story, she is getting upset because she BELIEVES she is half-Asian.

First off, I corrected her and told her I was Vietnamese not Chinese. And while it's true I am her aunt, we all can't look alike.  Blah, blah....yadday, yadday.

In the end, she wants me to come to her school to prove she's half Asian.  RIOT!!  Bless her little heart.