Immigration frustration

Immigration problems have plagued me all my life. Yet, I never gave serious thought to "upgrading" my passport. Last year, a foreign journalist in Beijing interviewed me about my passport for a story she was writing about Chinese citizens swapping their nationality for easier international travel or better education and work opportunities overseas.

Why did I hang onto my Chinese passport? Because I always felt - and wanted to remain - 100 percent Chinese. Despite spending most of my life overseas, I'm sentimental about my nationality and want to keep my unpronounceable name, "difficult" passport, the whole shebang.

This wasn't an easy choice. In the 1990s, stern officials at Xiamen International Airport scrutinized my light crimson "personal" passport and demanded a "return flight permit" each time I crossed the border. I'd never heard of such a permit, so I showed them the multi-entry visa in my passport instead. Sometimes, they didn't buy it and forced me to stay for a few days while they called Beijing to check if our countrymen were indeed allowed to leave and live overseas. It was a lot of trouble for a ten-year-old who only wanted to come visit her grandparents every summer.