Losing My Mother's Culture
Classic TCK: half Khmer-half American, lived in Japan, Thailand, Hungary, Czech, England, etc. etc. - my mother is from Cambodia and I never had the chance to live there (only visited once), and throughout my entire upbringing my mother refused to share anything related to Cambodia with me - no language, no culture, no religion, etc. Now that I'm older and thinking about my role as a mother, it's conflicting to face this Cambodian identity within my family.
I don't want this identity to completely die off, but I'm not sure how I can manage keeping it in my life and my future. I live in Austria now with my Austrian husband and family. Everything I try to do to maintain the Cambodian aspect of my identity and history feels forced and artificial. I feel like I have to just let it go completely and accept that this actually doesn't belong to me.
I don't know how to navigate this and hope some of you might have some insight or thoughts.