Famous Third Culture Kids (TCKs)
I’ll be taking a blogging break over the festive period, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a post about famous Third Culture Kids (TCKs).
What is a TCK?
A Third Culture Kid is defined as someone who spends a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than their own passport culture(s) up to the age of eighteen. As a result of their upbringing, they tend to integrate elements of their host cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture.
Nine famous TCKs
Barack Obama was born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, who met at the University of Hawaii. Following his parents’ divorce when Obama was aged 2, his mother remarried another foreign student from Indonesia. They had a daughter and the family moved to Jakarta. Obama’s ancestry has been traced to Kenya, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. As the US President, Obamas’s bipartisanship approach was widely recognised.
Colin Firth frequently travelled during his childhood due to his parents’ work. Both of his parents were academics and teachers. He spent some years in Nigeria and lived in Missouri at the age of 11. When he returned to England, he attended a state comprehensive school in Hampshire. To counter his experience as an outsider and the target of bullying, he adopted the local working class Hampshire accent and copied his schoolmates' lack of interest in schoolwork. This a prime example of a TCK’s ability to ‘mesh and mimic’ people around them to fit in more quickly, and for Colin Firth, marked the start of his interest in acting.
Freddie Mercury, the iconic and flamboyant lead singer of Queen, was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar to Indian Parsi parents. He attended boarding school in India before moving to England at the age of 17. He’s still regarded as a legendary musical talent decades after his death.
Viggo Mortenson was born in New York to a Danish father and American mother, who met one another in Norway. During his childhood, he lived in Venezuela, Denmark and Argentina, then moved to New York at the age of 11 when his parents divorced. As an actor, he has received various accolades including a Screen Actors Guild Award and has been nominated for three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
Yo-Yo Ma is a Chinese-American cellist. Born in Paris, he went to school in New York City and was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, recording more than 90 albums and receiving 18 Grammy Awards. His TCK upbringing may have influenced his recording across a wide variety of folk music such as American bluegrass, traditional Chinese melodies, Argentinian tangos and Brazilian music. Since 2006, he has been a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
Gillian Anderson was born in Chicago then her family moved to Puerto Rico for 15 months soon after she was born, followed by a move to London until she was 11, when the family moved to Michigan. They continued to keep a flat in London, and spent their summers there. With her English accent and background, she was mocked and felt out of place as a teenager in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwestern accent. To this day, she easily shifts between her American and English accents. During an interview in May 2013, she said: “I’ve been asked whether I feel more like a Brit than an American and I don't know what the answer to that question is. I know that I feel that London is home and I'm very happy with that as my home. I love London as a city and I feel very comfortable there. In terms of identity, I'm still a bit baffled."
Audrey Hepburn was an outstanding British actress who won multiple awards including an Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony and Bafta. She was born in Brussels and spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, England and the Netherlands. Later in life she become known for her humanitarian work with UNICEF in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America and Asia. In December 1992, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Simon Sinek was born in London with British-American nationality. Throughout his childhood, he lived in Johannesburg, London, and Hong Kong before settling in the United States. Following a career in advertising with Ogilvy & Mather, he is now known as a motivational speaker and consultant, sparked by his first TED talk ‘Start with why.’
Boris Johnson, or Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to use his full name, is the current UK Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader. He was born in New York City and attended the European School, Brussels before attending Eton in England. According to his Wikipedia page, he “has been accused of dishonesty, elitism, and cronyism, and of using racist, sexist, and homophobic language.” Quite unusual for a TCK who has grown up with different people from a range of cultures!