*** I originally wrote this in 2019 and just revised it on Dec 31, 2024 ***
When I first landed in San Francisco in 1988 to go to school at Berkeley, I wasn’t planning on staying. Perhaps around Junior Year, after I came out as queer and then started identifying with Asian Americans, as most of my friends were… I thought that I might want to stay… but I didn’t know how.
With Trump in the office a few years ago, I’ve suddenly become a lot more self-conscious about being an immigrant even though I’ve become an American citizen and my son was born in Ohio.
Just the other day, I was in hip hop class where a group of kids came to the Edge to learn dancing in our studio from Las Vegas. Our hip hop instructor asked us to meet someone new… so I said hi to this kid from Vegas.
And he asked, “Where’re you from?”
“I live here,” I said casually.
“I meant where were you really from?” he asked. I was like… OK he was a teenager.
“I was originally from Hong Kong.”
“So how long have you been here?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“I came to L.A. in 1993,” I said. “For UCLA graduate film school.”
And the kid became silent. I thought it was because 1993 was before he was born.
I know a lot of my Asian American friends get very upset if they are doubted or questioned about their birthplace. For an immigrant like me, it’s simply a fact that I wasn’t born here.
But let me tell you… it has been a journey!
#gayhollywooddad
