so here’s something that you don’t hear
every day
I’m so glad I had to get my car serviced
a couple months ago because if I didn’t
I’d be giving you a completely different
talk about my last 7200 out here on
American soil a couple months ago I
needed to get my car serviced so I went
to this mom-and-pop auto repair store in
downtown Encinitas I gave it to the
mechanic and I asked him how long the
whole process would take in which he
responded roughly about two hours I
thought to myself at that point okay
great what could I do at Downtown
Encinitas for two hours maybe I could go
to a coffee shop and go get myself a cup
of coffee and people-watch maybe I could
go explore downtown a little bit more
considering how rarely I’d go down there
but instead I decided to do one of the
most insane Yishun things possible and
that is go to the beach so I was walking
down the 101 and I found a beach to my
right and I found a bench and I sat on
that bench and just observed my
surroundings I saw the lush green palm
trees around me a clear blue sky right
above me and pristine blue water right
in front of me and it was interesting to
think that right on the other side of
that ocean was where I’d previously
lived a couple minutes later I saw this
heavyset african-american man walk on
the shore with his wife they were
walking in my direction and they finally
sat on the bench right next to me
several minutes later as I’m kind of
writing in my notebook a surfer comes up
from the beach he approaches the
gentleman right next to me shakes his
hand he says thank you for your service
and then walks away as that gentleman
sitting right next to me
looks in my direction I noticed that
he’s wearing a hat that says Vietnam War
veteran written on it
and at that point that’s myself you know
what if I could interview this man for
my TED talk I would have such an amazing
testimony and so his wife got up and
went to use the bathroom and that’s when
I got up off my bench to go talk to him
and I said excuse me sir I couldn’t help
but notice that your conversation with
that gentleman earlier I’m doing a TED
talk in April and I was wondering if I
could get your opinion on my topic of
what it means to be an American
considering how you were Bryn who has
fought and fought and was willing to die
for our country
just a simple questions they wouldn’t
take more than ten minutes of your time
so skeptical at first he finally he
finally said sit down and so I sat down
right next to him and I shook his hand I
said my name was Matthew in which he
replied his name was Lou later Lou asked
me so what are you really talking about
and I said well my perspective of what
does it mean to be an American
from a third culture kid perspective now
some of you in the audience right now
might be thinking hmm well what is a
third culture kid well a third culture
kid defined by James V Gould the author
of the academic journal the third
culture kid experience is one that
spends a significant a part of their
developmental years outside their
parents culture for us third culture
kids we gain a knowledge of various
cultures not only through the country in
which our parents are from but the
country in which our passport tells us
we’re from and also the country in which
we live in take my case as an example I
guess you could say I have quite a bit
of an identity crisis my father was born
and raised in London England hence why
whenever I go there this is how I sound
like my mother was born and raised in
Massachusetts and for the last 17 years
I was born and raised in Singapore with
8 months living in China
my grandparents currently lived there
today
and so I guess you could say I’m
American Chinese British and Singaporean
after telling Lou my story he said you
know what you were just about to
interview me all what does it mean to be
an American from
veterans perspective but you’re an
individual who’s just moved to this
country what does it mean to be an
American to you and so I thought long
and hard about that and I said you know
growing up overseas in Asia when people
asked me where are you from
I usually said I was an American and
when they asked me where exactly you
from in America I said I was from Boston
Massachusetts because that’s where my
mother is from and that’s where a
majority of her family is today and
while living overseas I associate in
America with all the stereotypes that
revolved around it because media is one
of America’s biggest exports what I
associated America with through its
movie I associate America through its
way it was displayed through its movies
TV shows and even its music you know it
was the land of the free the home of the
brave it was the leading country in
tomorrow’s world being an American was
synonymous to success wealth prosperity
fortune I remember growing up as a kid I
loved watching the NFL the MLB and the
NBA
a matter of fact I spent late nights
just staying up and watching the New
England you England Patriots playing in
the Super Bowl I remember I even spent
time in Singapore playing football
basketball baseball instead of your
conventional soccer because I felt like
American sports made me more relatable
to my American family and so despite
living 9,000 miles away from American
soil I fell in love with this country
compelled that one day I’d have to move
to this country in order to truly call
myself an American and so after Lou
heard my story on that he said all right
well now that you live here what’s
changed is your perception of America
still the same is it different so I
thought long and hard again and then I
finally said to him have you ever heard
of the story Plato’s allegory of the
cave
it’s a story where prisoners are chained
in the cave since birth and all they
know is a wall right in front of them
that occasionally cast shadows one day
one of the prisoners
to set free and realizes that the
shadows on the wall are really just
objects blocking light from hitting that
wall he reaches the surface where he
realizes that there’s more to the world
than just shadows on a cave for me my
perception of America was very much the
shadows on that wall you see when I
first got to the u.s. in Carlsbad
California it didn’t take me long to
realize that I was the only Asian in a
very Caucasian neighborhood I literally
felt out of place I remember going to
school trying to adjust to this new
culture and this new lifestyle finding
it very difficult I receive frequently
the question oh where are you from oh
I’m from Boston oh that’s cool but where
are you really from I remember even
receiving racist comments such as how
can you see the whole world if your eyes
are only half open and so far the
highlight of my 10 months being here has
got to be my experience of the
supermarket you see when I went to the
frozen section at my local supermarket
there was a guy on the other end of the
aisle
that had two frozen boxes with him and
he came up to me he said excuse me sir
from your authentic palate who do you
think makes more better Chinese food or
better orange chicken sorry and he and
he said Panda Express or PF Changs and
for the record for all of you though out
there in the audience
orange chicken is not authentic Chinese
food I agree that it tastes good but
still not authentic Chinese food and so
if it’s anything that I learned from the
last ten months is that not only did I
not seem American to the eyes of others
who were born and raised in this country
but I no longer felt American and so loo
later leaned back on that bench and he
looked far out right where the ocean
touch this guy and he said you know what
growing up in America wasn’t great for
me either
you see Liu grew up and what he referred
to as the deep red America right in the
heart of Louisiana on a farm
there weren’t any grocery stores nearby
so whatever they grew he ate there
weren’t any tractors so all the farming
was done with his bare hands and with a
mule and he told me that he grew up in a
time where it was common for someone
like him to be seated at the back of the
bus he grew up in a time where it was
common for someone like him to get shot
on their way to the diner he grew up in
a time where it was common for someone
like him to be regarded as a
second-class citizen but there was
certain drive-in Lou made him want to
prove people wrong though he wasn’t just
a second-class citizen so he enlisted in
the Marine Corps spent 10 years in the
Marine Corps two tours in Vietnam and
was stationed in London at the u.s.
embassy at one point where he said quote
I did not know that there were so many
different races and cultures out there
and quote he was later stationed in Camp
Pendleton where he decided to retire and
stay in the San Diego area where he
worked at SD GE and he worked at the
very bottom earning minimum wage to 28
years later working at the managerial
position nowadays he’s retired living
contempt with his life with his wife and
owned several properties at the San
Diego area at the end of his whole story
he pointed at me and he said you are no
better than me and I am no better than
you in this country that we live in we
are all granted an equal opportunity to
survive and thrive the question is what
do you want to achieve and how badly do
you want to achieve it and so if it’s
anything that I learned from Lou that
afternoon it was that being an American
wasn’t just the passport that I had
despite never living in this country
ever before it wasn’t even the accent
that I spoke with or the stereotypes
that revolved around it being an
American is really the values in which
we all live and share the idea that even
as a third culture kid I have the
opportunity just as like everyone else
in this audience to reach my goals and
reach my American dream and so that’s
what it means
to me to be an American now Lou was more
than just a Vietnam veteran to me Lou is
a living embodiment of the American
dream
someone who’s started from the very
bottom working at on a farm in Louisiana
to now owning several properties in the
San Diego area and so the question I
want to leave with you today is have you
found your inner Lou and how determined
are you to get there thank you [Applause]
every day
I’m so glad I had to get my car serviced
a couple months ago because if I didn’t
I’d be giving you a completely different
talk about my last 7200 out here on
American soil a couple months ago I
needed to get my car serviced so I went
to this mom-and-pop auto repair store in
downtown Encinitas I gave it to the
mechanic and I asked him how long the
whole process would take in which he
responded roughly about two hours I
thought to myself at that point okay
great what could I do at Downtown
Encinitas for two hours maybe I could go
to a coffee shop and go get myself a cup
of coffee and people-watch maybe I could
go explore downtown a little bit more
considering how rarely I’d go down there
but instead I decided to do one of the
most insane Yishun things possible and
that is go to the beach so I was walking
down the 101 and I found a beach to my
right and I found a bench and I sat on
that bench and just observed my
surroundings I saw the lush green palm
trees around me a clear blue sky right
above me and pristine blue water right
in front of me and it was interesting to
think that right on the other side of
that ocean was where I’d previously
lived a couple minutes later I saw this
heavyset african-american man walk on
the shore with his wife they were
walking in my direction and they finally
sat on the bench right next to me
several minutes later as I’m kind of
writing in my notebook a surfer comes up
from the beach he approaches the
gentleman right next to me shakes his
hand he says thank you for your service
and then walks away as that gentleman
sitting right next to me
looks in my direction I noticed that
he’s wearing a hat that says Vietnam War
veteran written on it
and at that point that’s myself you know
what if I could interview this man for
my TED talk I would have such an amazing
testimony and so his wife got up and
went to use the bathroom and that’s when
I got up off my bench to go talk to him
and I said excuse me sir I couldn’t help
but notice that your conversation with
that gentleman earlier I’m doing a TED
talk in April and I was wondering if I
could get your opinion on my topic of
what it means to be an American
considering how you were Bryn who has
fought and fought and was willing to die
for our country
just a simple questions they wouldn’t
take more than ten minutes of your time
so skeptical at first he finally he
finally said sit down and so I sat down
right next to him and I shook his hand I
said my name was Matthew in which he
replied his name was Lou later Lou asked
me so what are you really talking about
and I said well my perspective of what
does it mean to be an American
from a third culture kid perspective now
some of you in the audience right now
might be thinking hmm well what is a
third culture kid well a third culture
kid defined by James V Gould the author
of the academic journal the third
culture kid experience is one that
spends a significant a part of their
developmental years outside their
parents culture for us third culture
kids we gain a knowledge of various
cultures not only through the country in
which our parents are from but the
country in which our passport tells us
we’re from and also the country in which
we live in take my case as an example I
guess you could say I have quite a bit
of an identity crisis my father was born
and raised in London England hence why
whenever I go there this is how I sound
like my mother was born and raised in
Massachusetts and for the last 17 years
I was born and raised in Singapore with
8 months living in China
my grandparents currently lived there
today
and so I guess you could say I’m
American Chinese British and Singaporean
after telling Lou my story he said you
know what you were just about to
interview me all what does it mean to be
an American from
veterans perspective but you’re an
individual who’s just moved to this
country what does it mean to be an
American to you and so I thought long
and hard about that and I said you know
growing up overseas in Asia when people
asked me where are you from
I usually said I was an American and
when they asked me where exactly you
from in America I said I was from Boston
Massachusetts because that’s where my
mother is from and that’s where a
majority of her family is today and
while living overseas I associate in
America with all the stereotypes that
revolved around it because media is one
of America’s biggest exports what I
associated America with through its
movie I associate America through its
way it was displayed through its movies
TV shows and even its music you know it
was the land of the free the home of the
brave it was the leading country in
tomorrow’s world being an American was
synonymous to success wealth prosperity
fortune I remember growing up as a kid I
loved watching the NFL the MLB and the
NBA
a matter of fact I spent late nights
just staying up and watching the New
England you England Patriots playing in
the Super Bowl I remember I even spent
time in Singapore playing football
basketball baseball instead of your
conventional soccer because I felt like
American sports made me more relatable
to my American family and so despite
living 9,000 miles away from American
soil I fell in love with this country
compelled that one day I’d have to move
to this country in order to truly call
myself an American and so after Lou
heard my story on that he said all right
well now that you live here what’s
changed is your perception of America
still the same is it different so I
thought long and hard again and then I
finally said to him have you ever heard
of the story Plato’s allegory of the
cave
it’s a story where prisoners are chained
in the cave since birth and all they
know is a wall right in front of them
that occasionally cast shadows one day
one of the prisoners
to set free and realizes that the
shadows on the wall are really just
objects blocking light from hitting that
wall he reaches the surface where he
realizes that there’s more to the world
than just shadows on a cave for me my
perception of America was very much the
shadows on that wall you see when I
first got to the u.s. in Carlsbad
California it didn’t take me long to
realize that I was the only Asian in a
very Caucasian neighborhood I literally
felt out of place I remember going to
school trying to adjust to this new
culture and this new lifestyle finding
it very difficult I receive frequently
the question oh where are you from oh
I’m from Boston oh that’s cool but where
are you really from I remember even
receiving racist comments such as how
can you see the whole world if your eyes
are only half open and so far the
highlight of my 10 months being here has
got to be my experience of the
supermarket you see when I went to the
frozen section at my local supermarket
there was a guy on the other end of the
aisle
that had two frozen boxes with him and
he came up to me he said excuse me sir
from your authentic palate who do you
think makes more better Chinese food or
better orange chicken sorry and he and
he said Panda Express or PF Changs and
for the record for all of you though out
there in the audience
orange chicken is not authentic Chinese
food I agree that it tastes good but
still not authentic Chinese food and so
if it’s anything that I learned from the
last ten months is that not only did I
not seem American to the eyes of others
who were born and raised in this country
but I no longer felt American and so loo
later leaned back on that bench and he
looked far out right where the ocean
touch this guy and he said you know what
growing up in America wasn’t great for
me either
you see Liu grew up and what he referred
to as the deep red America right in the
heart of Louisiana on a farm
there weren’t any grocery stores nearby
so whatever they grew he ate there
weren’t any tractors so all the farming
was done with his bare hands and with a
mule and he told me that he grew up in a
time where it was common for someone
like him to be seated at the back of the
bus he grew up in a time where it was
common for someone like him to get shot
on their way to the diner he grew up in
a time where it was common for someone
like him to be regarded as a
second-class citizen but there was
certain drive-in Lou made him want to
prove people wrong though he wasn’t just
a second-class citizen so he enlisted in
the Marine Corps spent 10 years in the
Marine Corps two tours in Vietnam and
was stationed in London at the u.s.
embassy at one point where he said quote
I did not know that there were so many
different races and cultures out there
and quote he was later stationed in Camp
Pendleton where he decided to retire and
stay in the San Diego area where he
worked at SD GE and he worked at the
very bottom earning minimum wage to 28
years later working at the managerial
position nowadays he’s retired living
contempt with his life with his wife and
owned several properties at the San
Diego area at the end of his whole story
he pointed at me and he said you are no
better than me and I am no better than
you in this country that we live in we
are all granted an equal opportunity to
survive and thrive the question is what
do you want to achieve and how badly do
you want to achieve it and so if it’s
anything that I learned from Lou that
afternoon it was that being an American
wasn’t just the passport that I had
despite never living in this country
ever before it wasn’t even the accent
that I spoke with or the stereotypes
that revolved around it being an
American is really the values in which
we all live and share the idea that even
as a third culture kid I have the
opportunity just as like everyone else
in this audience to reach my goals and
reach my American dream and so that’s
what it means
to me to be an American now Lou was more
than just a Vietnam veteran to me Lou is
a living embodiment of the American
dream
someone who’s started from the very
bottom working at on a farm in Louisiana
to now owning several properties in the
San Diego area and so the question I
want to leave with you today is have you
found your inner Lou and how determined
are you to get there thank you [Applause]
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