Among Asian Adults living in the U.S., 52% say they most often describe themselves using ethnic labels that reflect their heritage and family roots, either alone or together with “American.” About six-in-ten (59%) say that what happens to Asians in the U.S. affects their own lives.

In a new analysis based on dozens of focus groups, Asian American participants described the challenges of navigating their own identity in a nation where the label “Asian” brings expectations about their origins, behavior and physical self.

In this companion documentary, Asian American participants described navigating their own identity. These participants were not part of our focus group study but were similarly sampled to tell their own stories.

The stories shared by participants in our video documentary reflect opinions, experiences and perspectives similar to those we heard in the focus groups. Watch extended interviews that were not included in our documentary but present thematically relevant stories.

Use this quote sorter to read how focus group participants answered the question, “What does it mean to be you in America?”