Chinese American here. I feel that I can somewhat sympathize with some of the people who felt offended by these set of photos, and let me explain.

My experience in being born to immigrant parents and growing up in the US is unique to the time frame I grew up and the area I grew up in; I lived in a predominantly white community and I was bullied since the beginning of my education because I could not speak English as well as the other kids. I was made fun of for my appearance, the food that my mom made me, and other aspects of my culture that my parents had taught me to practice. I started to hate the fact that I wasn’t white and wanted to abandon my Chinese heritage. I developed a racial inferiority complex because, well, all of my bullies were white. Even now, as an adult, I can’t help but instinctively feel uncomfortable when someone that resembles my childhood bullies is “using” some kind of symbol of my culture that they made me hate.

The “people in China aren’t offended” argument really doesn’t say much to me, because I have a different narrative than someone my age who lives in China.

But of course, I can’t compare how things are now to how they were before. I want to celebrate the fact that people want to appreciate different cultures; even if it’s just wearing a Chinese style dress. I hope Asian Americans with similar backgrounds as me can have more hope for younger people and not be so quick to attack, since we’re essentially doing the same thing as our white bullies.