Chinese-Americans are often placed in an ethnic bind: one that defines authenticity of Chinese-American identity from an outsider point of view while not recognizing lived experience or actual practice of identity. My study has found a complex relationship between language and identity in the Chinese-American diaspora, one that acknowledges language as connected to heritage, but does not define language as necessary for authentic identity. Furthermore, the individuals who participated defined Chineseness as based solely on heritage, and, to some participants, blood, which allows for all people of Chinese descent to have authentic Chinese identity. These shifting definitions allow for some degree of freedom from the ethnic bind, although some lingering binding with agency of reclamation remains.