My Story

I was born to a Minnesota farm-raised mother and a Chinese-American immigrant father. Growing up in Montgomery County, I was fortunate enough to have a great diversity of people around me. There were other interracial Asian Americans in my school, and even in my neighborhood. Having these people as well as the greater Asian American community in Montgomery county shielded me from many of the issues in identity that interracial Asian Americans face. But as I continued to college and explored my identity further, I found that being interracial was more complex than I originally thought. I spent a lot of time not feeling “Chinese” enough and worrying that I was trying too hard to find a part of me that did not exist. But, through digital storytelling, I came to better understand myself and embrace my interracial identity. 

I was introduced to digital storytelling during my Global Studies coursework. Though traditional storytelling is a 3-5 minute long video, we explored different methods of storytelling, including story maps. In creating my own story map, I remember thinking to myself: what would it look like to have this data within the interracial Asian American community? 

Throughout the next year, I facilitated the creation of an archive of Interracial Asian American story maps. 

This research was funded by an undergraduate research award from UMBC. The money went toward compensating the storytellers for their participation.