Bi-Cultural
What can I say? I'm an Asian-Euro American.
I don't say this to be flip, coy or pretentious, even tough that's how I'm sure it comes out from a white American boy like me. But, being here in SE Asia again for the first time in 27 years has opened my eyes to who I am and helped me remember a part of myself I'd forgotten. Sure, I'm Chris Druckenmiller from Bismarck, ND. I'm also Teng Ke Wu from Hai Oh, a small fishing village south of Gaoshung, Taiwan.
I may have been born in Rockford, Ill, but I spent three very formative years of my childhood speaking Mandarin and Taiwanese, filling in the big red field of the Taiwanese flag with crayon and getting my knuckles rapped with a ruler by Lao Shu if my fingernails were dirty.
When my family moved back to the states I was 6 years old and an outcast. There were other students with blonde hair and pale skin like me but they laughed at my accent and broken English. I got teased and for years people would anger me by asking me to "Say something in Japanese!"
I got over it. I forgot all my Mandarin and Taiwanese except "Ni hao!" (hello) and gradually Americanized myself. Only now have I realized that I never did completely convert myself. Only now do I realize I'm an adult with a bi-cultural upbringing.
As I walk the streets here in Ha Noi I say "Xin chao!", nod my head, smile and get big curious smiles back at me. I can start to hear how my accent sounds to them. I don't know if it's a Saigonese accent because I'm dragging out the "chao" at the end or if I've started speaking like someone from Ha Noi. Either way, I know I do not sound American. Hell I don't sound western.
Do I sound Taiwanese? Do they smell the poor, low-class fishing village on my breath when I speak? Either way, I'm the oddity here.
This trip started out as a cool little vacation for Reese and I. It started turning into a business expedition as I saw the potential for development in Asia. Now it's become a life-changing experience.
I want to get the small company I work for in here and negotiate deals to make money for my company, my family and Asia. I want to build a second home in Hai Oh and split my time between there and the victorian Reese and I already own in Minneapolis.
I want to be buried in Hai Oh.
Leave it as that for this morning. I've got some iced, Vietnamese coffee to drink and email to check. Here's to hoping you and your family find wealth and happiness in whatever you do, too.
I don't say this to be flip, coy or pretentious, even tough that's how I'm sure it comes out from a white American boy like me. But, being here in SE Asia again for the first time in 27 years has opened my eyes to who I am and helped me remember a part of myself I'd forgotten. Sure, I'm Chris Druckenmiller from Bismarck, ND. I'm also Teng Ke Wu from Hai Oh, a small fishing village south of Gaoshung, Taiwan.
I may have been born in Rockford, Ill, but I spent three very formative years of my childhood speaking Mandarin and Taiwanese, filling in the big red field of the Taiwanese flag with crayon and getting my knuckles rapped with a ruler by Lao Shu if my fingernails were dirty.
When my family moved back to the states I was 6 years old and an outcast. There were other students with blonde hair and pale skin like me but they laughed at my accent and broken English. I got teased and for years people would anger me by asking me to "Say something in Japanese!"
I got over it. I forgot all my Mandarin and Taiwanese except "Ni hao!" (hello) and gradually Americanized myself. Only now have I realized that I never did completely convert myself. Only now do I realize I'm an adult with a bi-cultural upbringing.
As I walk the streets here in Ha Noi I say "Xin chao!", nod my head, smile and get big curious smiles back at me. I can start to hear how my accent sounds to them. I don't know if it's a Saigonese accent because I'm dragging out the "chao" at the end or if I've started speaking like someone from Ha Noi. Either way, I know I do not sound American. Hell I don't sound western.
Do I sound Taiwanese? Do they smell the poor, low-class fishing village on my breath when I speak? Either way, I'm the oddity here.
This trip started out as a cool little vacation for Reese and I. It started turning into a business expedition as I saw the potential for development in Asia. Now it's become a life-changing experience.
I want to get the small company I work for in here and negotiate deals to make money for my company, my family and Asia. I want to build a second home in Hai Oh and split my time between there and the victorian Reese and I already own in Minneapolis.
I want to be buried in Hai Oh.
Leave it as that for this morning. I've got some iced, Vietnamese coffee to drink and email to check. Here's to hoping you and your family find wealth and happiness in whatever you do, too.
posted by Chris Druckenmiller | 3:54 PM
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