Constructing Asianness: A Relational Approach to Ethnoracial Identity for Transnational East and Southeast Asian Adoptees

Using a relational perspective of ethnoracial formation, this article argues that ethnoracial identity is co-constructed in everyday interactions between the individual, their experiences of racialization, and the expectations of the ethnoracial community. Drawing on 49 interviews with transnational East and Southeast Asian adoptees, I explore how constructions of Asianness from different ethnoracial groups affect individual ethnoracial identity formation. I find that parents and non-Asian peers engage in ethnoracial socialization that teaches adoptees that they are disconnected and viewed outside of the Asian American community because they are adopted. This messaging shapes interactions with Asians and Asian Americans, where adoptees felt discomfort because they lacked ethnic cultural knowledge. However, positive interactions with co-ethnics, who affirmed that adoptees were Asian, helped Asian adoptees construct a new understanding of Asian identity that they could claim. Yet, adoptees saw this identity as conditional and felt they needed to disclose their adoption status to be accepted as Asian. This research highlights the centrality of ethnicity in the construction of Asianness and illustrates how ethnoracial groups inform, challenge, and renegotiate their identities in everyday life.