Colorless Immigrant

April 15, 2010
NYC
Elevation: 80meters

Last night I attended an event presented by The Opportunity Agenda called Immigration: Arts, Culture, Media 2010. The panelist were interesting and from a wide range of professions including David Henry Hwang, Favianna Rodriguez, Mira Nair, Martin Perna, Chung-Wha Hong, Alan Jenkins and Frank Sharry with Maria Hinojosa as the moderator. I don’t necessarily think the discussion was all that substantive in terms of way forward, in artist as activists or the future of immigration in America.

I attended the panel because I am interested in the question of HOME and the immigrant experience is part of the quandary. The panel raised an implicit issue that I found interesting which is the question of self-identity. I was not born here in the US. I was born in Taiwan and I spent a good portion of my childhood in there. I am an American citizen but am also a citizen of the Republic of China. I don’t think of myself as an immigrant. Yet I would be defined as an immigrant by most.

This might sound strange but I don’t perceive myself as either Chinese or American. I don’t see myself as a color or a nationality. I see myself as someone with a Chinese cultural background which manifest itself in simple issues such as food preference (I have an unreasonable fondness for rice) and as stereotypical as my parents raised me to be an overachiever (many think of it as an Asian trait). I see myself as someone who loves her US passport as it allows her access to many countries without the hassle of obtaining visas. I embrace and appreciate the opportunity and freedom this nation affords me. The perception of my Asian-ness comes more from other’s reactions and assumptions to me than of my own projection. I am aware that my lack of identification figures into my obsession with the issue of home which is part of the reason for this entry today. I am hoping for feedback, a dialogue. Sitting in the dark theater last night, I all of sudden felt like I am back in college attending my Asian American Lit class and the entire cannon of authors we read for the class touched on the issue of identity if not down right obsessed over it.

David Henry Hwang was born in LA but he still sees himself as an immigrant. Mira Nair’s view is one that comes closes to my own, which is that she does not view herself as an immigrant but someone with ties and culture roots in all three countries that she lives in. What is the absolute definition of immigrants? On some level are we not all immigrants? Especially when second generations still consider themselves to be so? When will we no longer be a strangers in a strange land?

Can you tell a story of the immigrant experience when you don’t feel like one? How can we tackle the issue of immigration through any channels be it art or media if all of us have varying views as to who we are?

How do you see yourself? 
Where does the artist fit into the politics of this nation or any nation? 
How can we, artists, be activists without becoming a mouth piece for someone’s talking points?