Asian Roots

As many of y'all know I LOVE K-Pop. I started liking K-Pop when I was in 8th grade; by this time I'd lived in China for a year (3 in total) and I'd heard a lot of K-Pop, J-Pop, and Chinese Pop. I always thought it was annoying, crap music, but then I became OBSESSED for about a year. Of course, I stilled loved my rap music, but I listened to mostly K-Pop. This fizzled for a while during my freshman year and then every so often I would listen to only K-Pop. I call these phases my, "extremely Asian phases." Typically, during these phases I listen to only Asian music and watch only Asian movies/tv shows.

Right now I'm going through the whole only Asian thing. I started listening to BigBang (My fav K-Pop group) on Spotify and got to thinking, "If I hadn't been in China, would I have ever found K-Pop and my love for it?" I'm not sure... I mean I would have known it's out there, but would I listen to it as much as I do?? 

I've noticed that a lot of other adoptees listen to K-Pop. This lead me to think that maybe it is because of our Asian roots. We don't have a way to completely learn about our motherlands or culture, so we listen to K-Pop as a way to connect. I started pondering this and I realized that I probably wouldn't have liked K-Pop if we hadn't gone to China because when I was a kid I wanted nothing to do with my Asianness. I wanted to be, "white, like my mom and dad." I literally said that and when people asked where I was from I'd say Texas! This didn't change till we had lived in China. Don't get me wrong, by the time I was 7 I would say I was from China, but I still didn't care about learning about the culture or about any Asian cultures. 

Whatever the reason is, I'm really glad I found K-Pop. It gives me that perfect balance of Chinese-American. Don't get me wrong, I never felt incomplete when I wasn't listening to K-Pop, but it has helped me feel more connected to that Asian side of myself. If y'all want to check out K-Pop, then I would highly recommend listening to Spotify's K-Pop playlists! My favs are BigBang, Aomg, Exo-K, 2PM, and Jay Park. Although, Jay Park is more Korean Rap. What can I say, I love rap music. :D