Hello! Ni hao! Privet!

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⁣Hello! Ni hao! Privet!

That’s “hello” in English, Chinese and Russian. Those are the three languages that circulate through the walls of our home. 

Being a parent of mixed-race children gives me anxiety. As strange as it sounds, I often worry if I am raising my sons to be Asian enough. â €

The Chinese community takes one glance at me and refers to me as an “ABC”, which translates to American Born Chinese. ABCs are children of Chinese immigrants who assimilated to the American culture and lifestyle. ⠀

Growing up as an ABC, I faced an Asian American identity crisis and isolation, where I didn’t feel like I fully belonged to either culture. I wasn’t white enough to know what casseroles were, but I wasn’t Asian enough to be able to fully read and write in Chinese. ⠀

I guess you can say I’m a blended product of two vastly different cultures. ⠀

What concerns me most is the fact that my sons will be a blend of FOUR different cultures. I’m Chinese American and my husband is Russian Australian. This makes them... a confused mutt? ⠀

D and I try so very hard to incorporate much of our native cultures into our kids’ lives as much as possible. This has proven to be much more difficult for me since I was never formally educated in the Chinese language. ⠀⠀

Thus, I’m forced to rely on books like @calisbooks to incorporate Chinese into my babies’ book time. This book plays 6 nursery rhymes in Chinese with English translation and transliteration, which is a nice bonus.