Duc Le 黎德

What I like about life in Asia is finally being anonymous. Not that I don’t want to be identified, but there’s a certain perk to being accepted without being questioned about my cultural heritage.

Okay, I don’t look particularly Asian either. A bunch of people have already asked if I’m a “Wasian.” As someone who grew up between Western and Asian cultures, it’s hard to blend in seamlessly anywhere.

In Germany, I was always the “Ching Chong kid” who does Kung Fu and has a hidden talent as a human calculator. Here, I’m either 外国人 (foreigner), 鬼佬 (ghost man), or tây (Westerner). It’s not perfect, but it’s better than being boxed in by Western media tropes.

And whether it’s the West or the East, it’s still always about the people you meet and whether you’re able to open up. People only accept you if you understand their lives, their stories, and their circumstances. Whether that’s the most right-wing village in East Germany or the most conservative place in Northern Vietnam.

Maybe the point was never to find where I belong, but to get comfortable not knowing. 2024 broke something open. Now it is teaching me what to do with it.