Overseas Chinese: Which country do you feel like you belong to?

Question

I have traveled so much through my childhood and early adulthood, I don't feel like I belong anywhere. I'm always foreign no matter where I go. I return to my birth town, I'm foreign. I go to China, I'm foreign. Except to my family, I guess I belong.

Answer 1

So do I, and I don't feel it's a bad thing.



Most people lead boring, linear lives because they're too attached to their surroundings, or too afraid of the unknown outside world. In time they will conform to their surroundings, have biased views, and their entire world would be made up of the little they know around them.



There's a fitting Chinese proverb for these people - a frog stuck in a well. Since the frog never saw how vast the sky is, he assumes the sky is as large as the mouth of the well. Ignorance is bliss, but also kinda sad if you think about it.



The world is vast and fascinating, would you waste your life away in 0.0000000001% of that space, or travel around and embrace diverse cultures, see/hear/taste/touch new things, and make your life as worthwhile as you can?



Our experiences define who we are, I'd rather be a lot of things than just one, boring, insignificant thing.



Let those in your hometown have their old acquaintances and local gossip, you'll have seen things they would never have dreamt of.

Answer 2

I've heard many born and bred in overseas share the same feeling as you, no matter how many generations he/she's been living in the west, the face is different from the mainstream, they're often asked, "Where (in overseas) are you from".



For majority 1st generation immigrants though, their distinct cultural differences and traditions from the mainstream will bind them to be loyal to their own birth place.

Answer 3

Japan when I go there every year I always feel calm and safe at night but I don't like the hate the foreigners crap thing. In america no the ppl is nice but some are just plain rude.