April 7, 2014 | Featured News,Immigration: our Stories
by Peter Wong, Park Ranger, Ellis Island Immigration Museum Mainstream American society considers me affectionately as an “ABC,” or “American-born Chinese.” Native-born Chinese, meanwhile, refer to me as a “juk sing,” or “hollowed bamboo” — a derisive term indicating that while I may look outwardly Chinese, I lack the language or cultural insights to be accepted into Chinese society. To be fair, I cannot read or write Chinese, and I speak the Chinese dialect of Cantonese like a precocious nine-year-old. …
