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Roma, 16/11/2011
Produced in Italy: Made in China
“Ni hao”. Random people stop and greet me on the streets of Rome with the only
Chinese words they know. Why they do it is still a mystery to me. Is it curiosity and desire to
connect with another culture? Is it racism? I am not sure, but what I do know is that they
perceive me as being different from them. This has led my Chinese ethnicity, mixed with my
Italian nationality, into becoming a major component of my growth as a person.
Growing up in two different cultures has opened my mind to almost anything, since I
have experienced first hand how there are at least two equally good ways to reach a result.
From being able to eat with both a fork and a pair of chopsticks to knowing two complex and
beautiful languages, I think I start ahead of most people. Additionally, because I can already
fully appreciate the beauty of two different cultures, I am curious to find and make mine the
good of other people’s cultures as well. Curiosity is definitely not going to kill the cat in this
case.
Two cultures, however, are not always easy to conciliate. Perfect strangers have tried
to victimize me based on my ethnicity and lead me to hate and rage; as a reaction, however, I
have decided to focus on the positive outcome of discrimination, which is the development of
a greater comprehension of the difficulties faced by minorities. What I gained is a greater
sensitivity not only towards other ethnic minorities, because that would ironically be racism,
but also towards all kinds of minorities and people who are not able to defend and stand up
for themselves.
The most important choice that people who were born in two or more cultures have to
make is whether to be confident about themselves or not. I could have chosen to pretend to be
a fascist in junior high in order to become more popular; instead, I decided to be true to
myself and not to let other people tear me down. Following trends and Italian canons of

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beauty would have never allowed me to be truly happy. Instead, popularity came as the
people around me realized that i was not going to let them show me who I had to be. I was
going to show them who I was.
My Chinese ethnicity, mixed with my Italian nationality has helped define myself as a
person, but I myself decided who I wanted to become. The dualism between my ethnicity and
nationality has made me face some situations that characterized me, but I strongly believe that
I would not be too different if I had been born in other circumstances. The people who
attribute their characteristics to their ethnicity usually do so only with their flaws, in a sad
attempt to blame them on something that is out of their power.
I, on the other hand, like to think that I can define myself. I may have impulses, but I
am totally able to control them. Therefore, if someone asks me if I am Chinese of Italian or
who I perceive myself to be, I have only one simple and extraordinary answer to give:
Francesco Chiang.