什么叫华裔？

大家好，我想用我的第二个语言写一篇文章。到底什么是‘华裔’？

2009年，我在北京的时候，是我的第一次听见这个词。华侨和华裔不一样。

从外貌的方面来说，我就像一个普通的中国人。 可是，我出生在美国。我14岁才首先“回国。”

在飞机场时，我发现了我的汉语口语水平比我想象得还差。我跟我妈说的语言大部分是英语。那可糟糕。。。我慢慢练习说普通话，结果我比以前说得好。但是，我的汉语当然不如一个真真的中国人得好。。

在中国，我遇到了很多没有知识的人。一般的人都需要问我如果我的英语很棒。理所当然！英语就是我的母语。有一些人还不会相信我是美国人。我觉得这些人比较讨厌。

可是，我还是华人。美籍华人。有一点奇怪-我在国外就认为我全部就是美国人。可是，回到美国以后，我还需要说我是华人，因为人会问我的种族是什么。

我还需要练好我的中文，可是高级汉语是挺难得。。。

最后，我叫谭敏华。我自己喜欢‘谭丽霞’因为‘丽霞’听起来有一点像“Felicia。” 还有，我属虎。好吧，下次我还得练习写中文文章。

For the curious people who can't read Chinese and have to rely on things like Google Translate...let me just tell you there are always some things that are lost in translation.

The title of my post is "What is 'Hua Yi'?" which basically means a person of Chinese descent who has a different nationality. (People also commonly mix up the difference between ethnicity and nationality. Nationality is related to where you have your citizenship. Ethnicity is your racial background. So, a minor pet peeve of mine is whenever someone asks me what my nationality is, and after my response of 'American,' they want to know where my family is from.) There's a difference between 'Hua Yi' and 'Hua Qiao.' Hua qiao means overseas Chinese - which I am not. However, growing up in America, all I ever heard was 'hua qiao' - so I was amazed to learn for the first time in 2009 that this different term of 'hua yi' existed.

There are some other frustrations I've had with being Chinese American in China. I'd still have people not believing I was American...I mean, perhaps my Chinese was passable enough on the surface that they'd have trouble believing otherwise, but I hardly think that was the reason. They could not really accept my being American with my Chinese appearance. I mean, certainly the educated Chinese population would be able to accept this concept better, but when we're talking about the common street folk - no offense to them - they seriously could not accept my explanations! I'd still be asked if I spoke English well. Well, of course - it's my native language!!

Additionally, what is strange is that everywhere around the world outside of America, I'm an American. I became more aware of this once I was abroad. I would strongly stick to the fact that I'm American and nothing else - which, from my passport, is absolutely true. I am not a Chinese person in the sense that I grew up with the one-child policy, the different society, culture, and basically everything. But when I get back to America, I still have to just flatly say that I'm Chinese to quench people's "What are you" curiosity.

My Chinese level is still not good enough to write all of what I just wrote in English in the same manner. Additionally, no, this English is not a translation of the Chinese above - but you can get a general sense of what I said....but more fleshed out. I didn't really start speaking Chinese until I was 14. I'd passively learned Chinese from listening to my mother, but I realized I never actually responded back in Chinese for most of my childhood. It was a bit of a shock to realize how bad my Chinese was when I hit the ground in Beijing at the airport for the first time in 2001. Since then, it has gotten better - but of course it's a long way from being a native Chinese speaker's level.

Growing up Chinese American in America is a whole other (tired) essay which I will have to write at a later point. Until then, 再见！