What Being AAPI Means to Me
By Ken Zou
AAPI to me is like an identity that I share with billions of others.
It is the relatable experiences, the similar tastes and likes, the shared experience of not being Caucasian in North America.
It is having to explain your cultural preferences to others, hoping that they will accept you.
It is the stricter upbringing and the higher expectations from your parents.
It is the lunch that smells “funny.”
Through all these experiences, AAPI people have carved out our own community and identity in North America.
It’s in these differences that we find a connection.
Ken was born in Southern China and immigrated to Canada when he was 8 years old. He is part of a group of people called the “Diaspora”, which refers to people who have moved from their homeland but still identify with it.
