Control Case

4.5.1 Case G: Thirty-six-year-old male Current Location: Taipei, Taiwan.

Relationship: A friend of a friend

Case G is the “control” participant in this exploratory study. Having spent the most time in the U.S. and moving later in his childhood than any other participant, his identity qualifies him as American rather than Taiwanese, even though he has lived in Taiwan for a while now. He is the only one whose entire family lived together in the U.S. as well as Taiwan.

Case G says that he identifies more with being “American Born Chinese.” He is more comfortable speaking English than Chinese, watching the Office (American), his musical influences in his music are American artists, and the producers/artists he admires are also American.

He was born in Seattle, but grew up in Los Angeles, California until high school.

Most of his mother’s side has already immigrated to the United States. Case G has only been to Taiwan on trips during summer vacation, until his father got a job in Taipei and his family made the move to Taiwan during Case G’s high school years. When his family moved to Taiwan, he went to Taipei American School for the remaining three years of high school.

Although he went to school in Los Angeles, he still felt more connected to Seattle, where he eventually went to University of Washington-Seattle.

Case G has spent most of his time growing up in California, and has quite a negative view of the area. During his educational career in Los Angeles, he felt that the area was quite rough, and there was always someone getting into a fight. Even though he lived in Los Angeles longer than he lived in Seattle, he would still root for Seattle’s basketball team, and was turned off the by the LA Lakers fans. He would rather root for anything from Seattle rather than from Los Angeles.

As a teen, Case G and the rest of his family moved to Taiwan, as his father got an architectural contract in Taiwan. During those years, Case G was enrolled at TAS, where he said people could be cliquey and therefore he made friends with the other new enrollments.

At TAS he created stronger relationships with his peers than with anyone he had befriended at previous schools. After graduating from Taipei American School, Case G went on to

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university in Seattle, and his parents eventually bought a house there for the family. When Case G finished college, he got involved in the arts and left Seattle for Paris, France.

However, when he moved out, his parents moved back to Seattle and are located there to this day. In Paris, Case G realized he actually wanted to be more involved in the music scene. So he left and went directly to Taiwan where his friend was a singer and wanted to introduce him to people in the music scene in Taiwan. That return to Taiwan helped start his music career, and he even got to produce and had a hit single that can be found in Taiwanese KTV charts.

That was about eight or nine years ago, when his job is not supporting his ARC, in contrast to as Case A, whose parents’ company hosts his ARC. Case G has a Taiwanese passport, but it is not the same as being a citizen. He cannot vote, nor is he obligated to have national health insurance. Case G is exempt, but his Alien Resident Certificate has a special note of “無戶籍國民” which translates as a national without a household. Earlier it has been noted that the concept of a household is rather important in creating ties and permanency in Taiwan. Because his parents are both Taiwanese, he can apply for citizenship. However, since his parents do not live and are not rooted in Taiwan, Case G is a national that does not have a household. Without this household is merely granted residency, but he does not have the complete rights a regular citizen with household would be granted. The National

Immigration Agency of Taiwan also had more details on people who can qualify as a national without household and what steps they must complete in order to get their visa.

Although it may seem backwards to give a visa to those who are nationals without households, the Immigration Agency of Taiwan deems it necessary in order to keep control over the flow of foreign-born Chinese. The Apple Daily covered this dilemma in 2011, with the remarks of a mother who had her child born in France and the difficulty of getting her residency in Taiwan. Case G’s parents are living in the United States, and it does not seem like they will be returning to live in Taiwan.

Case G has his career in Taiwan, but does not quite fit in. During his years in the United States, and as well as being in an American environment for college, Case G still considers Taiwan as his home, but his identifies with being an American. From Case G we learn that the longer that one spends their childhood in a certain area there is a direct

correlation to what country they identify and feel more comfortable in. However, due to his

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positive experience in Taiwan, he stayed here rather than returning to the United States, where he feels more culturally comfortable. His choice to stay in Taiwan is based on his good relations with other people living here. Although he feels American, the experience he had was not the most positive experience, and like Case A, who had negative experiences and therefore could not relate, Case G’s negative experiences caused him to consider another country more comfortable than his own.

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In this thesis, I would like to break up the analysis into three parts. The first part will analyze the importance of residence in identity, conclusions based on where a person has lived. In the second part I would like to explore the educational background in forming an identity. In the third part I would like to introduce the role of positive versus negative life experiences. These three parts in sum will help conclude that the idea that an increased time in a certain environment, with life different experiences, will create and foster an identity aside from the dual citizenship that these participants have.

5.1 Part One: Residency

Table 2: Participants and Earliest Childhood Memories Age Left USA First Childhood Memory

Case A 6 months old Getting candy and baseball cards at the “票 亭” near his elementary school

Case B 5 years old Birthday parties in the backyard with a piñata

Fourth of July fireworks

Case C Less than a year old Getting bullied by his older brother in the park near their home in Banqiao

Case D Very young, so young she is unsure of when

Spending three hours a day watching Japanese television at home in Taiwan

Case E One month old Looking up into the sky as a child

Case F Two years old/

7 months old

Elder sister did not know, younger sister recalled a memory based off a home video

Case G (Control)

15 years old Getting the videogames from Japan and not understanding them, GI Joe, and

Transformers