Growing up Taiwanese in China, then moving to the US — anyone else feel like they never fully “fit” anywhere?
Hey everyone! first time posting here, so apologies if this is a little rambly.
I’m Taiwanese, but I actually grew up in mainland China before moving to the US in high school. And lately I’ve been realizing how weirdly “in‑between” that makes my identity.
In China, I was always the “Taiwanese kid.”
In Taiwan, I’m the “kid who grew up in China.”
In the US, I’m just “Asian,”
Culturally, I feel like I’m carrying three different operating systems in my head, and none of them fully match the environment I’m in. My Mandarin has a mix of accents, my English is fluent but still feels like a second skin, and my sense of “home” is split across places that don’t really talk to each other.
Sometimes it feels cool, like I can move between worlds.
Other times it feels like I don’t fully belong to any of them.
I’m curious if anyone else here grew up in one Asian culture, is ethnically from another, and then ended up in the US. How did you make sense of your identity? Did you ever feel like you were constantly code‑switching even within the Asian community?
Would love to hear other people’s experiences.