I was fortunate to attend a talk by BD Wong in San Francisco and the playwright Lauren Yee promoting her play “Great Leap Forward”.
BD Wong is an openly gay Asian man. He talked about how as an adult, he finally announcing to the world about being gay and being very proud to be gay and proud to be Asian.
I was moved to tears after hearing him say he was proud to be Asian.
At the age of 48, I am proud to be many things. I’m proud to be a father, proud to be a software engineer, proud to be a mentor, proud to be a husband, proud to be a mentor.
But.. I don’t think I’ve been proud of my heritage as an Asian.
I am not proud of my accent. I’m not proud of the odd Chinese customs, I make fun of them. I’m not very proud of the small frame of Asian men. I’m not proud that Asian men seem to be lower social status that Asian women seem to want to marry up to Caucasian men.
Work to be done yet