Who is Nellie Wong from the collection, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color?

Nellie Wong is the author of the poem entitled "When I was Growing Up" about being Oriental and living in America, longing to be white and shunning her own heritage with the conviction that white was superior. She writes "In Search of the Self as Hero: Confetti of Voices on New Year's Night" as a letter to herself contrasting the things that encourage her with the things that discourage her, and the temptation to retreat into her own imagination from life. She encourages herself by the end that she cares too much to betray those who came before her, or who fight alongside her.