Asians Around Appalachia: Ryan Chen

From Morgantown, West Virginia, Ryan Chen is a Chinese-American student heading into his senior year of high school. He's involved in Science Olympiad, where he established his school's first competitive team and qualified for nationals three years in a row. Ryan also participates on the Envirothon team where he's earned distinctions including multiple top 5 finishes and the Best Rookie Team award. In his free time, he enjoys doodling and sleeping.

Interview

1. Have you ever felt out of place due to your identity? If so, where did you find a sense of community?

Not so much anymore after moving to Morgantown. I used to be really shy due to past bullying experiences due to my race, but have learned to be able to discourage those behaviors while also not giving too much attention to how others might judge my culture as sometimes the best thing to do is to ignore ignorance rather than instigating which made me more outreaching to make new friends.

2. Can you tell us about one of your stories related to being an AppalAsian?

I was often bullied with racist gestures in elementary and middle school due to me being one of maybe 3-4 asians in a school at the time before moving to Morgantown. It was really hard to make friends during my childhood since those experiences made me afraid of how others might judge my culture and identity despite many of the new people I met being genuinely nice people. Since then, I’ve since learned that although these type of people always exist, there’s as an equal (or greater) amount of people who go against this type of racist behavior.

3. What is one Appalachian / Asian American related policy issue that’s important to you and why?

   
   

​​I’m not aware of any specific policies since I’ve never been super open or involved in politics. One thing I will say is that I think that sometimes politics is too divided by race. Rather than labeling of groups of people with titles, I think it’s better to think of everyone as just people as a whole.

4. What is one piece of advice you would give AppalAsians who struggle to fit in?

   
   

Just be yourself! Don’t try to “fit in” towards anyone’s speciations despite being a minority, and just be what makes you happy. Nothing sucks more than trying to be someone you aren’t.