July. I think it is probably ok to say that a hot summer has already come to Taipei. (when I said this in April people immediately denied) Except for the deadly heat, evil mosquitos, sudden downpours and typhoons, Taipei's summer has another seasonal phenomenon. It's a sudden Americanization. The number of foreigners who take Chinese classes in Taipei increases significantly (I know they are not necessarily Americans but it feels like most of them are), and many ABCs (American-Born Chinese) visit their parents and relatives in Taiwan. So I constantly hear English spoken on the street, on the train, on the bus, everywhere.
I have met quite a few ABCs in NY and in Taiwan, and I was first fascinated by their "global" backgrounds. At first I thought their identity and status in Taiwan are probably similar to those of "Kikoku-shijo (kids grew up in foreign countries and went back)" in Japan, who are treated as "special" in a good and bad sense. I know a lot of Kikoku-shijos through high school and college, and their unstable and mixed self-identities were pretty peculiar. My friend Jennifer says ABCs are sometimes a bit arrogant towards general Taiwanese, and she doesn't like such an attitude of theirs. Kikoku-shijos also receive a similar criticism although it is not clear to me whether they are actually arrogant or it is just a cultural difference.
Over time I developed an ABC image that is quite different from Kikoku-shijo in Japan, however. (I hope I won't offend any of my ABC friends.. ) Although some ABCs contend that their identity is confused, and they do not know where they belong to, I found that most of the ABCs have a strong "ABC" identity. First of all, the number of ABCs is huge, and that helps them create a group identity to share. Second, their backgrounds have a lot in common; strong family ties, high education level, pragmatism about jobs and money, and sometimes quite political, sometimes Christian (they are just my stereotype, there are of course lots of exceptions). I do not know if they organize an ABC society as a whole, but I remember they gather and hang out together in many colleges.
I am not quite sure if ABKs (Koreans) and ABVs (Vietnamese) also enjoy shared identities. They maybe do, considering their strong preference in marrying a person of the same ethnic background.
The second generation of overseas Chinese in other countries and kids of inter-racial marriage probably have a more complicated identity issue.
not that there's anything wrong with being one, just petty semantics on my part.
Posted by: jennifer at July 15, 2004 08:18 PMHey Jennifer, thank you for the comments. Yeah, you are right. Strictly speaking, you are not an ABC. I will correct it.
Posted by: Sayaka at July 16, 2004 09:52 PM