Throughout my life, I’ve been lucky to feel like I belong – at least as much as anyone can hope to. I grew up on the central coast of California, where ethnic ambiguity didn’t raise any eyebrows. I was never made to feel different or like an outsider. “People saw me as white, so that was how I felt,” wrote my colleague, and fellow half-Asian, Shea Driscoll,
in a recent essay exploring his own evolving sense of identity. That hit home. And though I didn’t explicitly think of myself as white, I certainly was never forced to think of myself as “different”. I could just be.
It was a privilege I didn’t realise I had until I moved to the United States’ East Coast. There, where the racial demographics are different from California, I started getting the question, “But where are you really from?” for the first time. I met friends who looked like me but had spent their lives feeling like they didn’t fit in.
This issue’s cover feature brought these memories flooding back. At its core, it’s a story about making a space yourself when the world won’t allow you one. Sarah Keenlyside spends a day on the pitch with
Baes FC – a women- and queer-friendly football team in London founded by members of the Asian diaspora off the back of discrimination at other clubs. They’ve made a home and community for people who felt like outsiders elsewhere.
There are so many ways a sense of home can be created. Off the pitch and inside three very distinct Hong Kong flats, Peta Tomlinson investigates the trend of wood as a way for interior designers to evoke a sense of warmth. It’s a transformative effect on the city’s usual cold, characterless residential spaces.
As Michelin continues its march towards world domination, Gavin Yeung explores what it means to be
the only Michelin-starred restaurant in your region as he stops at two establishments in Thailand in a delicious adventure. The Old World beckons to Peter Neville-Hadley as he finds himself wandering Innsbruck’s history-laden streets in Austria. In what is mostly known as a ski destination, he discovers excitement off the powdered slopes in the city’s palaces, churches and treasure-filled museums.
For our loyal readers of
Then & Now, I regret to inform you that this will be the last for a while. After more than two decades of columns, our dear Jason Wordie will be taking a (much-deserved) break. We look forward to his return – but until then, we’ll miss it dearly as I expect you all will, too.
