In No, Really, Where Are You From? Nancy Ng tells the insightful true stories of how eight Chinese individuals, young and old and from various economic backgrounds, negotiated being a visible minority in mainstream Canada. With insight and inspiration, Ng writes of these remarkable people's experiences with their Chinese culture from childhood to adulthood. No, Really, Where Are You From? not only discusses the importance of global migration and its impact on ethnic identity; it also tells the stories of those who have first-hand experience of the issue. Ethnic identity retention and loss is never black and white... it is constantly reshaping and redefining itself.


No, Really, Where Are You From? is Nancy Ng’s first book. In 2005, she began work on No, Really, Where Are You From? because she was tired of having to explain why a Chinese looking girl ended up being born in Venezuela and has a Canadian accent. Besides being detained by immigration officers while abroad because ＂nothing in her passport matches＂ (imagine having your birthplace listed as Venezuela and citizenship as Canadian, while looking Chinese!), Nancy has also been ＂explaining＂ this different background for most of her life. And she’s tired of it. The constant curiosity from others of her cultural backgrounds eventually lead to writing this book. She knows cultural identity is a sensitive topic that can be up there with religion or even politics, but we need to talk about it. She also wanted to write this book because she often wonders what would have become of her, if she had never left Venezuela and grew up Venezuelan. Rather than returning to Venezuela and interviewing Chinese individuals born and raised there, Nancy looked closer to home for answers. Through her graduate work, she was able to further explore cultural identity and eventually her Chinese identity with No, Really, Where Are You From? But Nancy is more than just her writing. Nancy has travelled the world extensively absorbing and exploring as much of the diverse, rich, and colorful histories and food, around the planet. She doesn’t know if she can ever break her travel addiction! She also loves to climb some of the world’s highest mountains (Mt. Kilimanjaro-Africa-2005, Mt. Everest Basecamp-Nepal- 2008, and Mt. Aconcagua-Argentina-2012). Let’s just say Nancy likes to start at the top! In her spare time, she also loves to rock and ice climb, devour over biographies, and she can’t get enough of the property/real estate channel. Nancy has also written and produced a play, The Yellow Peril, for the 2003 Edmonton Fringe Festival. She graduated from the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) with a BA in Sociology, and from Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) with an MA in Sociology. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her next book is about her personal journey preparing for and actually climbing the world’s second highest mountain, Mount Aconcagua in Mendoza, Argentina.