{"id":25461,"date":"2024-02-07T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wukongsch.com\/blog\/?p=25461"},"modified":"2025-06-13T13:54:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T05:54:37","slug":"tell-us-your-abc-story-award-winning-story-growing-up-in-the-western-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wukongsch.com\/blog\/tell-us-your-abc-story-award-winning-story-growing-up-in-the-western-world-post-25461\/","title":{"rendered":"WuKong Education “Tell Us Your ABC Story” Award-Winning Story: Growing Up in the Western World"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
Welcome to Our ABC Stories!\r\n\r\nIn 2023, WuKong Education’s “Tell Us Your ABC Story” Global Story Contest invited Chinese families worldwide to share their tales. Actor Daniel Wu and author Vincent Yee, and the WuKong Judge Team, collectively selected 21 finalists from touching submissions. “Growing Up in the Western World” by Amy Huang, aged 14, has earned her a place as a “Future Writer Star.” Amy’s narrative offers a unique perspective on growing up in the Western world as a young Chinese individual. Take a moment to be inspired by her incredible story, offering a glimpse into global Chinese experiences.<\/blockquote>\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nIt all started when my dad made the decision to leave his home in Guangzhou, China and embark on along journey to a small country in Central America, Belize. In this foreign and unfamiliar place, my parents settled down and began to look for jobs. Here, they met people who also came from China and they built a friendship allowing them to depend on and help each other. A year later, my parents started their own business. Although they eventually got used to their environment, overcoming the language and culture barriers remained a di\ufb03cult challenge.\r\n\r\nSoon, I was born. After considerable thinking, my grandmother gave me the Chinese name Xi, which means \u201csunlight,\u201d and Min, which means \u201cquick, clever, and agile.\u201d The story of my English name, on the other hand, was quite amusing. My parents did not want to choose a name that was unfamiliar to them and easy for them to forget how to spell or pronounce it. As a result, they decided that \u201cAmy\u201d would be my Englishname because it is simple to spell and commonly used in TV shows in Hong Kong. At school, it was useful to have an Englishname. More than often my teachers and classmates would pronounce my name wrongly. In Grade 1, my teacher pronounced my name as \u201cShimin\u201d instead of Ximin, but I never corrected her and I was getting used to it.\r\n
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Traveling to China<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nMy time in school includes many memories and \ufb01rst experiences. I can still remember the time when I could only say two sentences in English which were \u201cMay Iuse the bathroom?\u201d and \u201cHello.\u201d Overtime, I learned new words but it was di\ufb03cult to understand their meanings.\u00a0\u00a0English was never my best subject in school compared to math. In math, there is just one \u00a0correct answer, but in English, the answers are more than often a matter of opinion\u00a0\u00a0with its exceptions and irregularities. I always struggled with English tests that had\u00a0\u00a0\ufb01ll-in-the-blank sentences, grammar, and word analogies. The only way that I could get \u00a0those answers right was by reading them over and over and \ufb01nding which one sounded the\u00a0\u00a0best. Although my current English grade isn\u2019t considered horrible, I still \ufb01nd it more \u00a0di\ufb03cult in comparison to other subjects. I have improved a lot in these few years and I believe\u00a0\u00a0that there are other American-born Chinese that also experience these problems in school.\r\n\r\nAfter only one year at school, I became the default translator of the family. Even with my limited English at that time, my parents would take me to any occasion that required them to speak English. Being bilingual could prove challenging at times. My brain is frequently a mess of words from each language and has trouble translating words from one language to another. This makes it di\ufb03cult forme to have along conversation in just one language without pausing and also why I communicate with my parents with a mixture of two languages like: \u201cHave you seen the \u5145\u7535\u5b9d(portable charger)?\u201d \u00a0Majority of the time they understand what I am trying to say but there are times when I struggle to \ufb01nda translation that my parents can understand.\r\n\r\n

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Meeting Relatives in China<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nGrowing up far away from China has made me distant from family members. When we have family gatherings, which isn\u2019t very often, it takes sometime to catch up and get better acquainted with each other. Growing up in the Western world has exposed me to a variety of cultures and beliefs di\ufb00erent from those at home. When people travel away from their homeland, some traditions and beliefs are sometimes forgotten or blended with Western ones. Even so, my parents made sure to keep our traditions alive by eating mooncakes in September\u00a0and\u00a0zongzi\u00a0in\u00a0June,\u00a0among\u00a0other\u00a0things.\u00a0They\u00a0made\u00a0it\u00a0certain\u00a0that\u00a0I\u00a0would\u00a0remember our culture eventhough we were far from China.\r\n\r\nBeing di\ufb00erent is one of the di\ufb03culties of being an ABC. It can be di\ufb03cult to \ufb01tin at times, and this could lead us to change who we are. I struggled with these issues during my \ufb01rst few years of school, but I am glad that I have now overcome them. Whenever my class- mates and I sat down for lunch, my food was always di\ufb00erent from everyone else\u2019s. I gradu- ally learned to share my culture rather than hide it. The fact that my parents sent me to go to a diverse school with people from all over the world also helped a lot to increase my con\ufb01- dence. Growing up as an ABC has its share of challenges and advantages, we should never try to hide who we are but instead to embrace our individuality.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n

<\/span>Summary<\/span><\/h2>\r\nThank you for immersing yourself in “Growing Up in the Western World,” a unique perspective on the challenges and joys of navigating life as a young Chinese individual in a Western setting. Amy Huang, at the age of 14, has earned recognition as a Future Writer Star for her insightful storytelling.\r\n\r\nAmy’s story adds a valuable dimension to the diverse tapestry of global Chinese experiences. We express our gratitude to Amy for sharing her unique narrative and contributing to the rich collection of global Chinese stories. May we continue to celebrate these stories that make our cultural heritage wonderfully diverse.
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Learn authentic Chinese<\/span> from those who live and breathe the culture.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\r\n

Specially tailored for kids aged 3-18 around the world!<\/p>\r\n \r\n Get started free!\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Our ABC Stories! In 2023, WuKong Education’s “Tell Us Your ABC Story” Global Story Contest invited Chinese families worldwide to share their tales. Actor Daniel Wu and author Vincent Yee, and the WuKong Judge Team, collectively selected 21 finalists from touching submissions. “Growing Up in the Western World” by Amy Huang, aged 14, has earned her a place as a “Future Writer Star.” Amy’s narrative offers a unique perspective on growing up in the Western world as a young Chinese individual. Take a moment to be inspired by her incredible story, offering a glimpse into global Chinese experiences. It all started when my dad made the decision to leave his home in Guangzhou, China and embark on along...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211806801,"featured_media":25673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134697],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wukong-student-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWuKong Education "Tell Us Your ABC Story" Award-Winning Story: Growing Up in the Western World - WuKong Edu Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amy depicts the nuances of Eastern culture in Western life through her words, as if her writing were a painting, revealing the world through her eyes and showing us the incremental growth of Chinese in a foreign land.Let's step into Amy's story together and feel the blend of Eastern and Western cultures!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WuKong Education "Tell Us Your ABC Story" Award-Winning Story: Growing Up in the Western World - 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