Jenny Jiang
Did you or your siblings encounter any hardships? Did you face any stigmas regarding your ethnicity?
“There has been so much stigma with being the only Asian - being different from everyone else in a group. But, that is not really my biggest issue. I don’t find it hard to deal with outside perspectives; I don’t really care about what other people think. But, I think the biggest problem I face is finding out who I am, exactly. I was raised in an Asian community when I was little, but coming to Virginia, there isn’t really a lot to know who I am, so I don’t really know what I became. So the hardest problem is finding out who I am.”
What are your best memories of your family’s immigration story?
“I wasn’t there when my parents immigrated, but I think the best part of having family connected to a different country is the memories that you build going to that country. You know that your parents grew up there, but it’s like an exotic land to you. It’s so weird seeing the mango trees growing outside the houses and the different environments. I think it’s really nice because you have your roots not exactly here, not exactly there, but essentially all over the place.”
Why did your family immigrate to the United States?
“My mom has told me that it was because the U.S. was considered ‘the land of opportunity’ and she thought that she could find something from it. For me, personally, I don’t really understand why, because she was considered one of the brightest students of her time by her high school teachers. But she dropped out of high school to come to America. I guess that’s how much she values opportunity.”
