Voices
 “I always say "I'm not half Asian and half American; I'm very Asian and very American at the same time." It didn't used to be that way. My Asian identity--everything from curiosity about my heritage, to extensive travel and roots-searching throughout China and Asia, to the pride I feel working at Asia Society today--has evolved over time. Ironically, my young daughter, who's "half Asian" and "half Puerto Rican" (or would that be a quarter Asian, a quarter American, a quarter Hispanic, and another quarter American?) is getting a much stronger and earlier start to her Asian American identity: she's fluent in Mandarin, and is exploring martial arts and Chinese dance. At the same time, she is in a Hispanic ballet school. My great hope for her and for so many Americans that are further down the "generations removed from Asia" line and/or are of increasingly mixed heritage, is that they can keep being "very Asian" while incorporating ever more into their identities.”— Deanna Lee, Vice President of Communications
“I identify with Asian America because I am a person of half Chinese and half Caucasian American descent. I was also born in Taiwan (while my mother was visiting for several months), but grew up in the States. My father is Caucasian American and from the South, whereas my mother is originally from China but grew up in Taiwan after her family fled the mainland in 1949 when the communists came to power. The exposure to my parents' vastly different cultures has greatly influenced my interests, and has made me more open and curious about other cultures in general. In particular, I am very interested in the many different immigrant communities in New York. Because I am of mixed descent, and have an English surname, others do not commonly guess that I am half Asian, but even as a child, I always identified more strongly with Asian culture. This identification has influenced most of my choices, one of the key ones being the decision to work at the Asia Society!”
Hannah Pritchard, Museums Executive Assistant
 “Being half-Vietnamese, I never felt comfortable with the label of Asian American when I was growing up because I didn’t feel that I could legitimately make this claim. As I got older and realized that the language and culture was such an intrinsic part of my upbringing and my character, I had no problem asserting this identity. In spite of my bicultural heritage, I still find that I am attracted to and can relate best with certain aspects of Asian culture and values. And even if people don’t think that I’m half-Vietnamese by looking at me, I often pass for Indian, so I’ve got that working for me.”
Daniel Simon, Business Programs Officer
 “I am very fortunate to have amazing parents. They come from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Even though initially their families were against their inter-racial marriage, with time, they have proved that love, not race, is the foundation of a family. My family has always been part of a rich, vibrant community, in which both my Asian and Latin-American cultures have been blended together and celebrated. I have been shaped by the benefit of two distinct cultures, one from my nation, and one from my heritage. This means eating rice with sea weed and salsa or listening to Mariachi at flower arrangement class. I believe that when cultures mix, the key is to embrace the strengths of each culture and never forget their origins. For me, being Asian-Latin-American means getting the best of both worlds.“
Yoshie Ito, Business Programs Officer
 “Living in an increasingly smaller and more global world, I’ve found that for many Asian Americans of my generation, self-identification has become more fluid and even natural. I was simply an American or a Yank when sitting amongst British friends in Hong Kong talking about watching Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid. When talking to a Seoul street vendor about my father’s hometown in Daegu or when defending the wonderful stink and flavor of kimchee (a fermented vegetables that is a staple of Korean cuisine) to my college friends, I couldn’t have felt more Korean. When screaming a bad rendition of Like a Prayer by Madonna while throwing back a shot of soju at a karaoke in Ktown? I guess I was both Asian and American or Asian American or Korean American that night. It’s complicated, but in a wonderful way. There is less need to identify with one structure to be heard and understood. Lines are blurred and that’s a good thing.”
Jennifer Suh, Public Relations Manager
 “Growing up in lush and mountainous East Java, I was exposed to the rich diversity of Indonesian cooking by my mother. However, it was only after I came and settled in the U.S. over two decades ago that I became more aware of the amazing variety of food from my country’s different islands. Indonesia’s fertile land and influences from the Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Indians and Japanese create such a splendid collection of Indonesian dishes that it is primarily through cooking and sharing meals with family and friends here in the U.S. that I feel most strongly connected to where I come from and who I am.”
Prima Wilson, Executive Offices
 “I grew up in Florida where one of my very best grade school friends was the only Korean American in my school. I remember how much I loved going to her house, and eating her mom’s cooking. Food was our connection to a culture that she and I only vaguely understood. She would visit Korea once a year then come back and tell me about how different life was there. In high school, she seemed to identify with the parts she liked most about the different cultures she inhabited. That duality and the ability to define yourself seems very American to me. My boyfriend came here from Japan 20 years ago when he was in his teens, and doesn’t consider himself American. He came here to try and become a rock star like Eddy Van Halen. How much more American can you get? “
Lauraleigh Bush, Senior Graphic Designer
 “I grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn which during the late 70s and early 90s was predominately Italian. As a child, I grew up not knowing much about my Asian heritage or language. By my teen years, I started to wonder about who I was. I tried embracing my heritage by learning the language and learning to cook some of its dishes. I found a new niche during high school. I now have three mobs of friends—my non-Asian friends, Asian friends, and my kindred. The kindred are the friends who also found themselves not belonging to one culture. We were all born in the U.S. and were not brought up in our parents’ culture. Our numbers are growing with each new generation of immigrants having children in the U.S.”
Stephen Mui, Information Technology
 “I have always been aware of my identity as an Asian American, Pakistani American, Woman, but after September 11th, I became increasingly aware of my identity as a Muslim American. Prior to 9/11, I had always thought of myself as “American”…I played softball while growing-up, participated in spelling bees (but lost), went skiing with my friends and family, etc. and I never thought that I would be looked at differently, with a negative impression because of my perceived ethnicity, religion, etc. I always thought if you work hard, you play by the rules, things will work out for you. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for the countless people perceived to be an enemy…whether it’s my immigrant friends being unfairly detained and deported, my friends being unfairly racially-profiled and humiliated at the airports, or my other friends who are still awaiting their US Citizenship, even though they have passed all the tests and requirements.
The Asia Society is working on new Islam initiatives, which I think will help with building a better understanding of Islam and the cultures that constitute part of the “Islamic World.” It’s through these types of programs, that the broader public can become acquainted with the cultures and traditions I respect, and realize that a religion is not an enemy.”
Imrana Khera, Asian American Programs Officer
"Closely linked to Asian Americans from my Stanford University and pre-Columbia University MBA days, my love and relationship with the culture drew me to the Asia Society early in my career. When I first joined the Society in 1992, our strategic mission was to bring Asians, Americans and Asian Americans together and engage all in our issue areas for public programming, our membership, and our resources. I have been privileged to facilitate links for and with Asian American entrepreneurs and business leaders ever since. My personal saga with Asian Americans is more profound than my official 15 years at the Society. I had been married to a newly named Asian American 27 years ago, a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) with whom I raised two Asian American “Hindjus.” My destiny was determined even earlier in my life to the moment I transferred as a sophomore from Barnard to Stanford and was placed in the Asian American theme house, Junipero, in Wilbur Hall. Not only was I surrounded by Asian Americans—mostly of East Asian ethnicity, but it was in that theme house that I met my future roommate of two years and best friend to date, Julia Yamoka, a Sansei, third-generation Japanese American, high school speech and debate champion from Stockton, CA, and a Yoko Ono look alike. Julia’s parents had been interned in the US during WW2, and her mother became my second mom. When Julia went to Japan in 1976, I visited her in Hiroshima and travelled with her to Kyoto and Tokyo--my first time in Japan. Her grandmother and aunt became a part of my family as well. All in all, by the time I got to the Asia Society, Asian Americans were as much a part of my world as non Asian Americans, or even my own ethnic group. Even now, 30 years later, I can say, "Hajime mashite. Kilachand Judi desu, " a line that has come in very handy in the planning and implementation of the Society's 18th Asian Corporate Conference taking place in Tokyo May 16-18."
Judi Kilachand, Executive Director of Business Programs
 "I grew up in California, the son of an agnostic Jew and Japanese American woman from the Valley. My mom was almost born in an internment camp, but two months before she was born they moved my grandparents to a “volunteer farming program” in Idaho. My Japanese family, like others post-internment, stopped speaking Japanese at home. We wanted to be more American than the Americans, but we still kept eating the food. Every week we made a pilgrimage to the Japanese restaurant that I had been going to since I was born, and the waitresses that I thought of as my aunties would fuss around me. They made sure that I could use chopsticks, that I at least try the fermented soy beans. Now when I go home the same waitresses fuss around me and make sure that I slurp my noodles."
Alexander Farbstein, Public Relations Associate
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