This AAPI Heritage Month, I was so lucky to be able to celebrate with the Chinese cultural dance troupe that I graduated from and spend time with my fellow performer friends who I haven’t seen in a while. A community made up of Asian American students and their families across the Boston area, this dance group is my second home and found family. I was so proud to be able to watch my juniors put on their annual final performance, a spectacular display driven by community and culture.
In addition, for AAPI Heritage Month, I’m also connecting back with my own family’s history! I have never quite understood the full context of how and why my grandparents left China to Vietnam and Taiwan, from which my parents immigrated to the United States. Thus, to fully understand my own Asian American identity, it is important to me to be knowledgeable about how we ended up where we have. To do this, I have been reading two books regarding the Cultural Revolution in China, during which my grandparents had migrated – “The World Turned Upside Down,” and “The Art of Contemporary China.”
