Chung was born in Seattle to Korean parents and was adopted before she ever knew them, or her sisters. Her white parents were forthright with her throughout her life about where her having been adopted, but they weren't entirely forthcoming. They told Nicole she could look for her birth family after she was 18. She finally got serious about her quest when she was pregnant.
Chung was raised in an entirely white Oregon community and had no connection to Korean or any Asian culture. She counted the Asians she saw until once when her parents took her to Seattle, and she found herself in the majority. Chung didn't tell her parents that she was bullied, but she was always othered. In All You Can Ever Know, she recounts her story of finding her blood relatives, most notably her sister Cindy.
I'm a sucker for an adoption story, but the ones I'm most taken with are told from the point of view of the parent. AYCEK is not that kind of story.