Anonymous — Family questionnaire

The questionnaireanswers as written; unanswered questions are not shown

What languages get spoken in your house, and who speaks which to whom?

Mandarin

Describe a normal weeknight dinner at your house.

Stir-fried pork with chili peppers, seaweed soup, rice? I don't really remember, but my grandparents prefer food with a bit more spicy

Is there a dish your family makes that you have never seen anywhere else?

No

What is in your kitchen that would not be in most of your friends' kitchens?

😭Not really, maybe the chili sauce made by my grandma.

Where does your family food shop, and how far do they drive to do it?

The nearby food shop? Like a supermarket...Around 10min driving

What happens in your house on a Sunday?

No

Is there a word or phrase your family uses at home that does not really translate?

haizi? It's a word from the Hunan dialect. This word means shoes, but if you say it in mandarine it means child.

What sport, instrument or activity did you end up doing — and who decided?

Piano, my mom picked it. A lot of children learn piano when they are young.

What do your parents expect of you, said out loud or not?

Hope me grow up healthy?

When did you first understand that your family was seen as Asian American — and what happened?

People usually slow down their speech around my grandparents, because they don't really know English that well.

What was the first job or business anyone in your family had in America?

Huh sorry I dont know

What city or neighbourhood did your family first live in when they arrived?

Wellesley, Beijing

What is one thing about America that someone in your family still finds strange, or funny?

They miss the food and some traditional festivals in China because all of their friends are in China right now.

Who in your family would you most want interviewed properly, and why?

My grandparents? because I feel like I don't know them that well, like their experiences.

Look around your house. What is one object your family would never throw away?

My great-grandparents' portrait of the deceased. My grandparents and my mom would be upset.

Anything else?

Background and experience?

Held, not published

• Contributor's contact details (never published).

Editorial notes

• Under "Anything you would rather we did not publish?" the contributor wrote an apology for having no photographs of the house or the handwritten letters; nothing was withheld.