Pre-Adolescent Case

Current Location: Chiayi, Southern Taiwan.

Relationship: Professor’s children.

Case F are actually a pair of sisters, both who have citizenship in Taiwan and the United States. Case F are also the youngest participants of this survey. Their answers are also reflected as a part of their extremely young age. In fact, it was hard to ask them questions, even with their parents around, as they were so shy and sometimes didn’t understand the stranger asking them questions. They also had very short attention spans and would race around the room finding other ways to entertaining themselves that would not be answering my questions. As far as experiences go, the younger the participant, the tougher it would to get answers.

Together, with time, patience and the help of their mother, they answered my questions politely. The older sister is eight years old, and left the United States for the first time when she was just over one year old. However, since both of her parents were still working on their doctorates in California, it was only a short visit to the relatives. Then the younger sister was born, and when she was seven months old, and her older sister, a little more than 2 years old, the entire family returned to Taiwan where they have lived ever since.

Neither of the children knew their timelines, and the mother had to help fill in the details.

As for the first memory, the eldest daughter could not remember her life before school. The youngest daughter mentions a crib and staring at the mobile hanging above her.

However, due to the random specificity of the situation, the parents concluded that this is a contrived memory built from video footage of the past that she has seen. This is relevant, because others have may have believed that they honestly remember that first memory, but it’s actually a constructed from a collection of other memories, photographs, and/or videos.

The children had different answers for many of the questions, and some thoughts of whether it was they were at the age were they did not want to agree occurred to me. The younger sister often had her own opinion, usually differing from the older sister, perhaps interviewing them together had actually had a negative and not a natural of a reaction as hoped. The eldest, who spent more time in the States and knew it, also said that in school the teachers knew she was American born (i.e. having an American passport) and therefore the

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students knew as well. The sister shyly said that nobody knows, as if she wouldn’t tell her classmates or think it is as important as the older sister does.

There is also a difference in which adults they keep company of, as adults directly influence a child’s life. Perhaps it derives from the two year age difference, but the elder daughter was more free to live where she was told to live, she would stay with her

grandparents without problems and did not think anything of it, although she is more of a daddy’s girl. The younger daughter, however, did not like the idea of leaving home, and would only want to stay with her mother. She felt the idea of leaving the nuclear family was not something she was comfortable with and would refuse to go to the grandparents’ house, even if her sister would be going.

The sisters did agree on is that the American passport is worth keeping over the Taiwanese passport. In fact, every single participant thus far has agreed on this term. Having such younger girls agree with this concept makes the idea that the lack of confidence in keeping a Taiwanese passport comes with ideas that predate the people, ideas that are a part of Taiwanese society— a type of romanticism in relation to American passports and

citizenship.

The eldest sister, who would forsake her Taiwanese passport, does not know if she ever wants to return to the U.S. Whereas the younger sister says she misses the U.S. and is more patriotic towards a country of which she has no recollection of. Both of them are too young to remember anything outside of play time at their nursery school, and currently only the older sister is going through cram school to improve her English abilities as well as to help her complete homework. The younger sister is exempt from this extra schooling, partially because she is insecure with her English abilities. The older sister is fine with studying, and liked to learn English even though it is difficult for her. Whereas the younger sister rather be with family and does not want to learn English for fear that she will be ridiculed.

Due to the fact the children are not old enough to answer many of the questions, their mother was asked instead. For example, the mother spent twelve years in various cities throughout the United States, earning a higher education. The hardships that she encountered were with taking care of the children, and during postpartum the Case F’s grandma came and helped for several months. The eldest daughter was actually under the care of a Latino nanny,

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so the eldest daughter had quite good English abilities as a toddler, which regressed as time went on in Taiwan.

Although the kids may or may not want to return to the United States, there is a possibility that they will do so for a short time. If their parents can get a visiting scholar position, offering them a teaching job at a university in the United States for one year, and perhaps the children, who are young enough to, will come along and accompany them while being enrolled in an American elementary school.

In the end, the children were still torn by the concept of being from and the overall notion of what is the United States. They think of ideas like snow, apples, and clean represent the United States. These ideas that may not have been planted there on purpose, but instead comes from the atmosphere they are growing up in.

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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