Hey, I’m Carl. My father was born in Queens, and my mother in Taipei, Taiwan. My father’s roots stem farther back than anyone in his family remembers, possibly into the 1800’s, when the original families immigrated to the United States. His parents had, for the most part, separated from their original families, and eventually came to New York City from Virginia and West Virginia in search of better job opportunities. As for my mother, both her parents emigrated from China during the Chinese Civil War to Taiwan. After she completed her art studies in Taiwan, she came to New York to study Computer Graphics and Animation at NYIT, and then lived in Flushing, Queens to study at School of Visual Arts.

My extended family is far more diverse than my immediate family’s roots, and learning about the diversity in New York will certainty enlighten me to the experiences of different cultures clashing and blending.