Why do you hate us?

But the truth is that in the last year or so, the world seems to have turned against my kind. I thought we were all swiftly careening towards a globalised, multicultural future – but the planet seems to have had other ideas. The rise of Donald Trump, of Brexit, of nationalist sentiment across the world – Turkey, the Philippines, Indonesia, China – came as a shock to some of us. It feels like a slap in the face to me and my kind. The only thing that seems to be truly global these days is insularity and nationalism.

I do understand it, however. My first-world globe-trotting life isn’t exactly a hard-knock existence. I’m not a casualty of globalisation, but a beneficiary. Meanwhile, the shrinking world means that thousands feel their identities are being stripped from them. The world isn’t the simple place it once was: and suddenly in waltzes the TCK with his multicultural outlook and cavalier sense of place. We represent much of what a ‘first culture’ person might fear and resent (see boxes). It’s ironic: whereas we TCKs struggled to find an identity from the murk of multiple cultures, now it’s those with crystal-clear ideas of their single culture who feel themselves under threat.

But Van Reken is hopeful that the TCK’s multicultural outlook is a tool that will brings us closer together, no matter how divided the world might seem. ‘The more we know our own story, the more we can use it to connect to people,’ she says

After all, the only reason TCKs exist is because at some point, our parents made the choice to explore. To leave the comfortable slice of life they called home. They made new homes for themselves, and they spliced a new way of seeing the world into our DNA. We were forged as third culture kids. We are inclusive, open, accepting. We span the globe. The rest of the world is just playing catch-up.

Third culture media

TCKs are an ever-growing group – and they’re creating insightful media about cross-cultural identities

READ

The Sympathiser, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s stunning, darkly humorous look at Eurasian and third culture identity after the Vietnam War.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in which Junot Díaz merges Puerto Rican Spanglish with nerdy boyhood to wonderful effect.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid explores being torn between Eastern and Western cultures and worlds.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi bridges Iran and Austria in a beautiful graphic novel.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien’s examination of the experience of Chinese immigrants in Canada.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith charts generations of immigrant children in London.

LISTEN

Constantly – Emmy the Great

The Eurasian singer/songwriter, who was born in Hong Kong, lived in London and now resides in New York, recorded this song twice, once in English and again in Mandarin – a tribute to her twin heritages.

Immigrants (We Get the Job Done) – The Hamilton Mixtape

Based on a song written by TCK playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda and performed by a who’s who of multilingual hip-hop stars, including Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan, Mexican-American Snow Tha Product, and British-Pakistani Riz MC (actor Riz Ahmed).