Hello, my name is Katharina Sammet. I was born and raised in Switzerland. My mother is Chinese (from Suzhou) and my dad is German.
Growing up was hard, since everyone looked at me as if I was a foreigner. When I was in Germany, people thought I was full Asian and when I was in China people could tell I was mixed. Even in my hometown in Switzerland the kids were making fun of my heritage.
Westerners say I look very Asian, but no one thinks I am Chinese. There were quite a lot who thought I was from Kazakhstan.
But as soon as I grew up a lot changed and I became proud of being Hapa.
I was growing up with 4 languages and I learned even more at school. I really love to travel, meet new people and share.
I’m half Okinawan and half European-American. I have also received the comment that I look Kazakh from two different people from Kazakhstan. This makes a lot of sense biologically to me since Kazakhstan is where a Eastern and Western cultures meet. I’m still struggling a little with my identity as my Asian friends often view me as white and my white friends view me as Asian. It can be difficult because I don’t have a large amount of biracial friends. Race isn’t a huge deal in the part of the world that I live in, so I have a lot of friends who love me for who I am and I’m grateful for this.
–Andie