As the US turns 250, young Asian-Americans weigh identity and China

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Lucy Quaggin looks at how Gen Z Chinese-Americans are navigating identity amid shifting US-China tensions.

As a high school student on New York City’s Upper East Side, Chinese-American Hannah Liu would take the subway downtown on Sundays to volunteer and visit Chinatown.

Those weekly trips became a space to embrace her Chinese identity, before culturally “code-switching” on her way back home.

Now 23 and still living in the city, Liu says she does not feel the need to code-switch as much. As a Generation Z Chinese-American, she describes feeling more comfortable openly embracing her heritage than she did growing up in the United States.

That personal shift represents a broader question for this generation: how their identities fit into the equation, as US-China relations become increasingly central to global politics.

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, some young Asian-Americans are asking what the future of this relationship looks like and how this key geopolitical rivalry will influence their own lives.