Synthesis

Synthesis is a blog about Asian American identity construction in the context of 21st century media and technology.

Whether it is in a journalistic, narrative, historical, or personal form, Asian American identity construction occurs on a daily basis in my life. Though it was nascent for much of my early childhood, it has recently become a very significant topic for me. Whenever I read a book about APA history or read the news about race relations in the morning, it affects how I view my identity and my relation between two cultures. I avoided these topics for much of my life because I feared I was getting “too involved” in Asian culture despite living in America. And yet, at one point in college (a good time for identity crises), I had to turn around and ask  myself a lot of questions about who I was.

Many Asian Americans walk the fine line between societies, and we are truly in a “gap.” Think about the implications, really think – where is home? What is family? Where do national loyalties fall? How do the divides of political states and geographic boundaries define you? Does it matter if you are registered as an outsider if you feel at home? How are you the same, or different, from your peers? What identities do you contain?

I started writing this blog with no pretense of being an authority, but I can offer my perspectives as a primary source. It’s written from the perspective of a 1.5 generation Chinese American, so many of the topics are related to China and Chinese culture. This isn’t an intentional oversight on anyone else, it just happens to be what I know more about. Thanks for reading!