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Hey guys. My name is Wendy Huang. I am Chinese American. I do not gamble (much). I love wearing boots.

Wendy Huang dressed in a traditional Chinese robe.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn in 1989. My younger brother was born in 1992. Both of my parents are from Guangzhou, China, and we speak Cantonese. My maternal grandparents are also from Guangzhou. My fraternal grandfather is from Guangzhou, but my fraternal grandmother is from Hainan, a tiny island province off the southern coast of China. She can speak Cantonese as well as her native language, Hainanese, which virtually no Chinese Americans can speak.

My family in America: my parents, fraternal grandparents, aunt, brother, and me.

My fraternal grandparents came to America in 1985 and applied for their three children, two sons and one daughter, to come as well. My dad is the second child and the older of the sons. My dad, my uncle, and my aunt came to America in 1986. Here, my dad and his siblings all found jobs in laundry and dry cleaning stores. My dad stayed here for about a year, went back to China, married my mom, and brought her to America. My mom had to leave all of her family in China. After they came back to America, my dad and his siblings each opened a laundry or dry cleaning store. Interestingly, my mother's siblings and practically all of her other relatives in China each own a restaurant.

My family in China: my mom, her siblings, her siblings' spouses, her nephews, my brother, and me.

The first house we lived in was in a Chinese neighborhood, a mini-Chinatown in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. I was so comfortable speaking Chinese at home and in the streets that when I started elementary school, I refused to learn English. In fact, I used to get zeros on all of my spelling tests (but 100s on all of my math tests). I finally succumbed to my teachers and started to learn English in the second grade.

My brother and I playing Mahjong with our grandparents in China. Mahjong is the funnest game EVER.

In March 2005, my family moved to a suburban neighborhood near Marine Park, Brooklyn. We felt estranged because everyone was white, and everyone on our block knew everyone. Every year our block had a block party, and each year my family stayed out the entire day of the block party and returned home very late to avoid the party. We have been doing that for three years already. I think it is very sad, but oh well, what can I do. I hope that one day, our family won't feel awkward and outcast in our neighborhood anymore.

Email: wendy.huang@baruchmail.cuny.edu