“I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S.”

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2022-02-22 22:13Z by Steven

“I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S.,” says Mitski [Miyawaki]. “I didn’t identify as that before I came here. People started calling me that, and I started being treated in a specific way.”

Tom Murphy, “Mitski Doesn’t Bother With Labels. She Prefers Excellence,” Westworld, July 14, 2017. https://www.westword.com/music/mitski-miyawakis-mixed-race-identity-informs-her-music-9246091.

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Mitski Doesn’t Bother With Labels. She Prefers Excellence

Posted in Articles, Arts, Asian Diaspora, Biography, United States on 2022-02-21 18:59Z by Steven

Mitski Doesn’t Bother With Labels. She Prefers Excellence

Westworld
2017-07-14

Tom Murphy


Mitski Ebru Yildiz

Mitski Miyawaki, who performs with her band under her first name, grew up in a biracial, multicultural household. During her childhood, Mitski lived in Japan, Malaysia, China, Turkey and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But it wasn’t until she returned to the U.S. that she had a racial designation imposed on her.

“I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S.,” says Mitski. “I didn’t identify as that before I came here. People started calling me that, and I started being treated in a specific way.”

In the U.S., Mitski was regularly asked what most biracial people – her being half Japanese and half Caucasian American – are asked at least once in their lives: “What ARE you?” Mitski doesn’t particularly identify with American or Japanese culture, and her parents didn’t encourage her to choose or adopt either.

“I think growing up the way I did has made me a lot more objective, and that’s important in the process of writing and trying to look at subjective matter that way,” observes Mitski. “Being an outsider at the time nurtured my eye as a writer.”…

Read the entire article here.

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