Americanized

This is my first narrative screenplay and I wrote this story based on my experiences growing up in Oakland as a fifth-generation Chinese American. I had a hard time understanding what it meant to be Chinese because my family didn’t speak the language, cook the food, or practice many of the traditions. I didn’t feel fully Chinese, or fully American - I just felt lost.

"Americanized" represents a younger version of myself who was trying to figure out who I was and where I belonged. To some, being called Americanized meant that you were identifying with white American culture, but the version of America that I grew up in is Oakland’s street culture. The corn-rowed hairstyle that the main character appropriates shows an attempt to fit in with her version of being “American.” We’ll see her try to become everything that she’s not, only because she wants to be accepted at the end of the day.

Creating this film was a deeply personal experience. We filmed at my old high school with the help of the Oakland filmmaking community and my old computer teacher Mr. Frey who encouraged me to learn filmmaking as a teenager. This is a film that I self-financed, and it exemplifies my identity as a filmmaker. I'm excited that this film can shed a light on the diversity of the Asian American experience.