During a lecture in Whitley Auditorium Wednesday, Mei-Ling Hopgood shared how her cultural roots and immersions, which have taken her from Asia to Detroit to Argentina, have shaped her perspective and personality.
Jon Dooley, Dean of Campus Life at Elon, introduced Hopgood as “between cultures and identities.”
Hopgood, an Asian American journalist, associate professor and director of global initiatives at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and the author of books How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm and Lucky Girl, opened the lecture by introducing herself in Spanish.
Hopgood, adopted at six months by a family from Detroit, was originally born in Taitung, a small island between China and Taiwan. But growing up, she didn’t want anything to do with her Asian heritage.
“I really didn’t want to be known as Asian,” she said. “I was actually ashamed of it in some ways. I would say I was proud but I think I was really conscious of being Asian.”
Hopgood said the need to fit in is pretty normal in high school, so it wasn’t until she started attending college at the University of Missouri that she began to accept her own heritage.
After becoming involved with different Asian American groups on campus, namely the Asian American Journalism Society, Hopgood began to take pride in her heritage as an Asian American.
Soon after, Hopgood was contacted by her birth family, who urged her to “come home.” After persistent letters from her sisters, Hopgood decided to make the journey to Taiwan and meet her family.
“It was a pretty intense and wonderful experience,” she said. “It was a very transforming moment.”
Hopgood’s cultural identity expanded even further when she met her husband and moved to Argentina.
Hopgood considers a lot of her personality as shaped by the Latin American culture that she experienced in Argentina.
“I’m very warm,” she said. “I like to hug people.”
Hopgood said her perception of culture and identity evolved even further when she had children because she realized that her two girls were already experiencing a different racial and cultural identity than she had.
As a fusion of American, Asian and Latin American culture, Hopgood has a unique view of culture and identity.
“Culture is something that’s organic,” she said. “It’s not just composed of your heritage or your background or your parents or the places you grow up; but the experiences you have and things you’re interested in. We are a fusion of these things. We have a choice in where we’re taken. We really do have a big hand in who we will become.”
Hopgood’s words affected many of the Elon students who attended the lecture.
Rachel Shippee, a senior who studied abroad in Argentina, came away with a different impression on how identity is actually defined.
“Although identity can be difficult to define, it's how we share and absorb new cultures and experiences that makes us who we are,” she said. “And that's what is more important. Not the amount of vague checks we make on a questionnaire asking us about our ethnicity and background, but how we grow from these new experiences and integrate them into our daily lives.”
Hopgood ended the lecture with a statement about her definition of home, something that goes hand-in-hand with both culture and identity.
“Ultimately I think home is something inside you, I know that sounds cliché, but you’re made up of a lot of different experiences.”
For Hopgood, looking back on these experiences and her messy life, her path doesn’t frustrate her. It only motivates her.
“I’m excited to see where it’s going to go next.”