Belgian/Hungarian | Taiwanese
I identify as Eurasian, gay and Ietsist, a combination which has fluctuated over the years. My cultural background is however truly that of a Third Culture Kid, a denomination I have strongly related to and now fully adopted. I was born in Japan, raised at the French school in Hong Kong and have been studying in the United Kingdom for 6 years now despite none of these countries being connected to either of my parents’ cultural backgrounds. My Mother is of Taiwanese origin and my Father is mostly Belgian with a hint of Hungarian blood. Both met whilst studying in high school in Belgium during a play in which both of them were acting. My Mother experienced some racial discrimination against her and her family as one of few Asian immigrants in a strongly colonial country, but my Dad was very open-minded to learn about different cultures and was more keen to travel when compared to his classmates. When they first started dating, my maternal Grandmother made my Dad pass several cultural ‘tests’ including cooking typical Taiwanese delicacies such as chicken feet and the famed ‘century’ eggs, to assess whether my Dad was truly invested in an interracial and intercultural relationship. I seem to connect the most to my country of birth Japan despite me only living there for 2 years and having forgotten most of my Japanese. I exclusively cook Japanese meals and appreciate Japanese aesthetics whether in fashion, architecture, music and interior design more than any other culture I could assimilate with. Being a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford is also ideal for people who can relate to my background seeing as academia fosters international collaborations and a single research group or department typically welcomes people from all different continents. Oxford is also extremely LGBTQ+ friendly and I would dare state that gender-conforming and people with rigid sexuality are in minority at the university, but this stems only from my perspective.
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