{"id":390,"date":"2025-11-14T00:14:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/?page_id=390"},"modified":"2025-11-15T16:04:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T16:04:46","slug":"chinese-american","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/poetry\/chinese-american\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese-American"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evan Chen<\/span><\/p>\n

It was seven years ago,<\/span><\/p>\n

When I remember I was alienated from my \u201cfriends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was in my heart,<\/span><\/p>\n

that they left a dent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Back then, I was only six.<\/span><\/p>\n

Living in China, speaking my tongue.<\/span><\/p>\n

I really loved it there, until everyone knew I was American.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the part, that really stung.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

It was seven years ago,<\/span><\/p>\n

When it was time to move.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smelling the candles one more time,<\/span><\/p>\n

realizing there was nothing to lose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

The goal of exploration danced in front of my eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

From one side of the Earth to another,<\/span><\/p>\n

was like flipping a paper up-side-down.<\/span><\/p>\n

the cruel thing was: I couldn\u2019t have been bothered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

With a blink of an eye, I was in America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without knowing a word of English,<\/span><\/p>\n

My bag was an elephant, as it dragged on my shoulder.<\/span><\/p>\n

making a friend, was all I\u2019ve wished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

When I sat down, I was the talk of the town.<\/span><\/p>\n

I felt special, but also isolated.<\/span><\/p>\n

They treated me as if I was different,<\/span><\/p>\n

making me not want to be loved, nor hated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

I wondered, what am I?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If I\u2019m not American, nor Chinese.<\/span><\/p>\n

then what am I?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If I can\u2019t be either one, then why not be both?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

I let my thought sink in,<\/span><\/p>\n

as I started to pick up English.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being a part of both China and America<\/span><\/p>\n

made me proudly Chinese-American.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nEvan Chen It was seven years ago, When I remember I was alienated from my \u201cfriends.\u201d It was in my…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Chinese-American”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"parent":322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-390","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/390\/revisions\/392"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}