A few months after they got married in City Hall, my parents flew back to China to visit their family for the first time since their immigration, and to take this wedding photo. This photograph, taken in a strictly traditional Chinese manner, is a sharp contrast to the white dress and tux photograph that my parents also took for their wedding, demonstrating the commitment that my parents have for both America and China. In the next couple decades of their immigration journey, my parents will use their legal status as a citizen (my mother) and green card holder (my father) to freely roam between the two countries, buying residencies and maintaining social circles in both. My siblings and I, brought up in the United States, will similarly keep up this pattern of dual integration, as we use the geographical freedom our American citizenship affords us to maintain our cultural ties to China. Despite identifying more strongly with America than China, I know that my strong roots to China will lead me to take a wedding photo much like the one my parents took twenty years ago.

– Yijun Wang

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant