What Am I?

It seems that people sometimes don't quite know what to make of me - Chinese? American? Recent immigrant to Australia?

How about all of the above?

In conversation, sometimes people would ask me,

"Are you a Yank? You sound like one."

or

"Where are you from? You don't sound like you're from around here, by the sound of your accent."

Other times, the conversation would go like this:

"Where are you from?"

"California, but I'd lived in Washington, DC, for seven years before coming to Australia."

"But, where were you born?"

"China."

"Ahh," as if a mystery has been solved and they now know exactly what kind of a person I am.

I've also gotten comments like:

"I didn't think you're American; I thought you got your accent from your parents."

or

"I thought I heard an accent when you speak, but it's not Asian."

or

"You were born in China? But you're so American." (as if they are mutually exclusive.)

Over time, I came to understand that the question "Where are you from?" means one of five things, depending on the person asking the question:

1) Where were you born?

2) Where do you consider home?

3) Where do you go to visit your family?

4) Where have you lived the longest?

5) Where did you grow up?

With me, people are rarely satisfied with the first answer I give. They tend to ask any of the above five questions in different variants until they get the answer to what they really mean.

So, how about this when someone asks me where I am from:

"I was born in China. I lived there until I was fourteen, when my whole family moved to the US. I spent the next fourteen years between California and Washington, DC. I then moved to Brisbane for med school and am planning on staying in Australia afterwards. I consider myself Californian because it feels like home, that's where my family is and that's where I'd spent my formative years when I developed my self-identity. I respect the Chinese tradition of family hierarchy and filial duties, at the same time I embrace the American ideal of individualism but reject the wanton consumerism and materialism; I also identify with the Australian sense of egalitarianism. I'm Chinese; I'm American; and I'm becoming Australian."

I suspect not too many people have the patience to listen to all that as a response to a seemingly simple question.

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Dinner tonight: pizza with a base of Lebanese bread topped with mozzarella, garlic, artichoke, sundried tomatoes, olives, and fresh coriander, rocket, and basil.