He may have been born in Edmonton, Alberta, and his parents may have been Cantonese Chinese from Hong Kong — but today, Merwin Siu firmly declares himself a Toledoan.
Gabriel Kramer is an Ohioan, through and through. He entered into this world at a hospital in Medina — the same one as his father. He walked the stage at Medina High School — the same as his grandfather. Three generations here in the Buckeye state, and yet, he still found himself searching for ways to fit in while growing up— ways that sometimes required him to neglect parts of his mixed-race identity.
Lee Wong has long served his country: he spent two decades in the U.S. Army, has been a trustee of West Chester Township since 2005 and is a chairman at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati. Some would say Wong is a textbook patriot. But as the U.S. continues to grapple with anti-Asian hate, Wong has had to prove himself again and again throughout his life.
Born in Chicago to Thai immigrants, author and teacher Ira Sukrungruang spent much of his early life wrangling the divided aspects of his identity — one irrevocably tied to his birthplace and home in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and the other struggling to resonate with the culture, language and traditions of his family’s heritage.
The year Donald Hayashi was born, everything changed.
In 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9742, ending Japanese detainment in America — and the incarceration of Hayashi’s own immediate family.
For Ajino Wah, memories of home are tinged with bittersweet contradictions. On the one hand, he remembers hospitality, lush rivers and gardens. In particular, a love of peace stands out in his sense of home among the Karen people, one of the first ethnic groups to settle in present-day Burma (also known as Myanmar).
Sudarshan Pyakurel is the executive director of the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio (BCCO). He and his family escaped from the systematic and forcible...
