Taiwan

Where’s home if you grow up in two countries?

Wendy Lee grew up in Taiwan and the USA, and has recently completed a Peace Corps assignment in Cameroon. In today’s interview we ask Wendy about what it’s like to move countries and adapt to a new culture, and what makes a place feel like home.

Where do you live now and where did you grow up? Where’s home for you?

I just moved to London last week to begin graduate school, so this is where I live now. I was born in Taiwan and spent my childhood there until the age of 12 before moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where I lived through college. It’s hard to define where home is for me. I try to invest energy to make each place I live my home by building lasting relationships and becoming comfortable with my environment. To me, home is where my loved ones are, and that could be anywhere from Taiwan to Cameroon.

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What is Taiwanese culture?

It’s hard for me, a Taiwanese, to clearly describe what Taiwanese culture is.

We speak Mandarin and have similar traditions to the Chinese, but in other ways we are not akin to China; the majority of our young people are crazy about Japanese and (recently) Korean pop culture; we sometimes refer to all the foreigners as “westerners” or “The Americans” (That really angered my English teacher who was a Canadian!) and we are so friendly to foreigners while we can be secretly biased against different ethnic groups on the island.

Sounds ridiculous? I’m serious.

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Strawberries on a stick in Taiwan

Thanks to Carrie Kellenberger for sharing this photo of fruit sticks on sale at a Taiwan night market. Check out Carrie’s other other night market photos (with lots more food on sticks) in our food of the world photo group on Flickr.

We’d love to see your photos too. Every week we’ll pick a favourite to post on PocketCultures.com

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