My Racist Experience Growing up in England as an Asian Man

At seven or eight, schoolmates mocked his eyes and said “go back to China,” prompting resentment, isolation, and declining grades. As a teenager, he embraced Japanese culture, language, and appearance, imagining Japan as home; living there instead brought loneliness and homesickness. Marriage to a Japanese woman did not resolve belonging: Japan saw him as foreign, while England saw him as insufficiently English.

His belonging quest moved from rejecting England to idealising Japan, ending in resigned isolation.