Egyptian, Dutch, Chinese

My name is Karim and I was born in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). My father is 100% Egyptian and my mother is 1/2 Dutch and 1/2 Chinese.

My Chinese grandfather was born near Shanghai in 1901 and ended up in the Netherlands for work. There he met my Dutch grandmother and the rest is history. My father did pretty much the same and lived in Amsterdam when he met my mother.

Eventually my family moved to a small town called Apeldoorn where I spent most of my youth. Generally I never really had difficulties being multiracial. Since I was born I’ve visited Egypt every year and spend good time with my family there.

Most of my mother’s family lives in the Netherlands and none of them can really speak Chinese anymore.  Nevertheless I’ve visited China several times to get acquainted with my Chinese background. This was a very enlightening experience.

My two families (Dutch/Chinese and Egyptian) are total opposites of each other. One part is Christian, the other part is Muslim. One part lives in the Netherlands, the other part in Egypt.

Sometimes I feel stuck between cultures, like I don’t completely “fit” into any of them, but I’m learning to appreciate my mixed roots and embrace all parts of my heritage.

Feel free to follow me at: www.kar.im