Finding My Taiwanese Identity

I am the son of first-generation Taiwanese immigrants. My parents immigrated to the United States for graduate school; I was born and raised in a primarily white suburban town near a big city. Like many others, I have wrestled with the clash of culture. On one hand, my parents are very “Asian” (you know what I mean) and that’s the type of home environment I grew up in. But on the other hand, most of my friends and my school environments were predominantly white and American. We, members of the minority, often struggle to find our place in society with these two cultures pulling at us in opposite directions.

During our travels to Nepal this past summer, I realized how much I inwardly pushed away my Taiwanese identity and attempted to embrace Western culture. In a way, I wanted to be “white”, just like everyone else. I realized that when I was young, I saw myself as different than everyone else and I felt that I needed to prove myself as a worthy human being by excelling in athletics, academics, etc. Maybe I was trying to escape my Asian-ness and become more “white”.

But God has been teaching me that He truly does love my ethnicity and He truly does love me for who I am. He did create me to be Taiwanese; it was not an accident. When ministering to Israelis this summer, I found myself trying to reach them by embracing my Taiwanese identity. I would always mention that I was Taiwanese and that I have decided to believe and to worship their God, the God of Israel, in hopes that they would see me differently and that they would perhaps trust my testimony more. I don’t know if my methods worked but I found myself constantly reverting to my ethnicity. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram and declares that He will make Abram a great nation and that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This great nation from Abram is the nation of Israel and the nations of the earth that would be blessed are the Gentile nations. That’s me! I humbly embrace myself as a Gentile who believes in the God of Israel and who provokes His people to jealousy. It is quite the testimony to have many from Gentile nations forsaking all of their gods to worship the God of Israel!

It was in this time that I began to realize my own contempt towards my Taiwanese identity and I set it in my heart to embrace my ethnicity the way that God intended me to. In light of this recent presidential election in the United States, I have found myself all the more embracing my Taiwanese identity. There is no doubt in my mind that racial identity has been a major factor in the outcome. Whether we want to admit it or not, we still have a major issue with others who are different than we are. We find it difficult to love others who are different and those who disagree with us. We find it difficult to love our enemies, but what good is it if you only love those who love you?

I live in a county that is 93.4% white. My county is a typical white, rural community. I am the only Asian teacher in the entire county. The question that I ask is, do I have a place in your society? Do I have a place in your America? But now, let’s not only consider Asians, but consider all of those who are different than you. I hope that I do have a place in your society, though I am different. But even if I do not, my true hope is in the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. In that day, we will have a righteous king and all the nations shall be blessed. All nations, all races, all people, all tongues.