Hello and Zaijian! (multicultural scholarship essay for SCAD)

hello, this is a scholarship essay, to describe how having a multicultural background influences my art/goals and experience.
I have no one I know to proofread it for me so i thought I'd put it on here to see if anyone could help

thanks!

Hello and Zaijian (multicultural essay)

When I was three, I left an island once called Formosa and traveled with my family to the Empire where the sun never sets. The four years that I spent there influenced me greatly, I was quickly adopting a new language when not even being familiar with my own. I stood in old churches and listened to hymns echoing, I stared up at stain glass windows as the story of christ was explained to me. The people were friendly, they hugged and kissed each other a lot, they taught me taught how to bake potatoes, play cats cradle and football. At school the teacher encouraged questions, we did many experiments, we made a volcano, we buried a pencil for a month and mixed tissue in water until it disappeared. I began drawing the things I saw: two vikings I met at school, bracelets that I made for Diwali at a local temple, mark-making, and queen Amidala from Star wars. My mother told me about Taiwan, how my grandmother was living there, I pictured a gentle looking british old woman holding homemade cookies. I found myself interested in different cultures, especially ancient cultures, that was the first time I decided what I wanted to be: An archeologist.

At seven I returned to my homeland, the language that I once knew have become symbols that I no longer recognize. The people were also friendly, though I did not know what they were saying and they looked quite startled when I hugged them. I tried to study in a local school, the teacher said I was a problem because I asked too much questions, we stared blankly at our books, then at the blackboard, then back at our books. I felt weird that I needed to bow at my teacher, I felt horrified when my teacher started to hit a student with "the hand of love" as they called it. My grandmother ended up to be an angry-looking short asian woman, with endless wrinkles on her face, she wore cheap white and blue flip-flops and tried to spank me with a chinese dictionary. Days passed and I started learning the story behind every chinese character, watched my first Peking opera, lit my first incense in a local temple, danced and singed with the aboriginals and for the sake for communicating with my grandmother learned Taiwanese (we get along quite well now, she is a master at majiong). My drawings started to change, white and red Peking opera masks started to appear, I became in love with the style of Lin Feng Mian, his way of using simple and curvy lines to draw women. When I entered an American high school in Taipei I came in touch with Norman Rockwell, Brian froud and Shaun Tan. I dived straight into the world of concept art and picture books, I started combining the cultures I know into a new culture that existed many years ago in my world.

How was my artwork influenced? At first I just drew whatever I saw: people on train rides and ancient artifacts that I would like to dig up someday, but after seeing the drawings of John foster, Kent Williams and Allan lee, I wanted to combine both of the cultures that I've came in touch with, combining patterns, illustrating the stories that I've heard. Instead of just noticing the differences between cultures, I began finding similarities, the strokes of chinese calligraphy and western calligraphy, ink paintings and water colour and finally adding what I've felt and lived into my paintings.

At school the teacher encouraged questions, --> not clear encourage to answer questions or to ask questions

thanks : ) I'll clarify that

... Ohhhhh.... that's great fun!


...though I had no clue on certain things they were saying to me and also they looked quite startled when I hugged them.



This is awesome writing... Sounds very genuine and I think you really deserve this scholarship. Wish you all the best!