Hong Kong.
Don't quite know how to start this entry. I knew this city was important to my BBC (british born chinese) or near BBC friends back in the UK.
I have had the pleasure of catching up with a few UK chinese friends out here.Kalun and his sister Yan, Wai Yin, Wai Ling and Pak Kin,..James and Mike from SCCC, Esther and Sam, Dez and more. All quality people. Each of em I'm sure has a different relationship to this place. The thing i guess they might all have in common though is that they have a 'dynamic', not a 'static' relationship (like their parents) with HK, involving tension, and stress: It PULLS and it PUSHES on their identity: It says you're Chinese' and then says 'No you're not'
For me. . .
I'm just an English bloke. The city is making me into something a bit more complicated though. I know silky black hair and cheekbones are required to be chinese, but my patience has evaporated in the heat and my attitudes to things like family and money owe alot to HK. The result is that I feel a little bit as though there's a culture gap between me and my family back in the UK.
The uk is 'pulling' me too. I've become a footie fan, and once again because of contrast, had me UNchineseness highlighted in lots of ways. I don't have the familial respect or the avoidance of conflict or the thriftyness of my Local friends.
Here's the result: I push people out of the way on subway trains and shout rudely at Indian fella's trying to sell me suits. I sit patiently in 3 1/2 hour meetings in a language I can't understand. I eat like a pig. I dress like a . . . .mix between HK and UK and I work harder than most of my UK friends and less than most of my HK friends.
Nice post. Going round in circles, no useful conclusions. Better do some work before I sleep (chinese neil is telling me to do that) Then again, I might just watch a movie (UK neil said that)
I have had the pleasure of catching up with a few UK chinese friends out here.Kalun and his sister Yan, Wai Yin, Wai Ling and Pak Kin,..James and Mike from SCCC, Esther and Sam, Dez and more. All quality people. Each of em I'm sure has a different relationship to this place. The thing i guess they might all have in common though is that they have a 'dynamic', not a 'static' relationship (like their parents) with HK, involving tension, and stress: It PULLS and it PUSHES on their identity: It says you're Chinese' and then says 'No you're not'
For me. . .
I'm just an English bloke. The city is making me into something a bit more complicated though. I know silky black hair and cheekbones are required to be chinese, but my patience has evaporated in the heat and my attitudes to things like family and money owe alot to HK. The result is that I feel a little bit as though there's a culture gap between me and my family back in the UK.
The uk is 'pulling' me too. I've become a footie fan, and once again because of contrast, had me UNchineseness highlighted in lots of ways. I don't have the familial respect or the avoidance of conflict or the thriftyness of my Local friends.
Here's the result: I push people out of the way on subway trains and shout rudely at Indian fella's trying to sell me suits. I sit patiently in 3 1/2 hour meetings in a language I can't understand. I eat like a pig. I dress like a . . . .mix between HK and UK and I work harder than most of my UK friends and less than most of my HK friends.
Nice post. Going round in circles, no useful conclusions. Better do some work before I sleep (chinese neil is telling me to do that) Then again, I might just watch a movie (UK neil said that)
posted by Mr.Thomas at 00:22
10 Comments:
I wonder how Chinese Neil and Chinese Me will match up. You could be more chinese than I am, or just the fact I am chinese may have a slight advantage. But I think you might beat me. Anyway,..uh, you don't know me. I flew over here from Kalun's blog. Nice to...read you? :)
-Julie (from America)
Nice to virtually meet you Ms. Blue-J. Interesting comment, Culture has almost become personal cos' we all travel so much and have connections all over. I'm sure you'd score more on a Chinese'ometer. Give me a few more years out here and I might catch up.
hey Mr Neil Thomas - its Alice Chan here or Alice Mak as I'm known nowadays... if I had found your blog a few weeks back i would have come and seen u in HK.
Horror of grammatical horrors, Neil... ("your chinese"?!) I couldn't resist there. More importantly, did we not once discuss when, if ever, you might dye your hair black? And conclude that it would be a travesty... but against what exactly, I don't think we decided.
As for the "polarisation effect", I can identify with that. Without trying to be a psychologist (who would be able to explain the whys of the human brain), I'd say that when a person is in a new environment, he/she has a number of options: (1) reject and go home; (2) try to live in the new environment as if still at home (always a bit difficult and uncomfortable - not exactly easy to find what would have been local cuisine or converse in the mother tongue, for example); (3) attempt to adopt the local way of life but only on a superficial level, ie way of thought remains essentially the same; (4) integration - the cultural mixing pot stage! (5) assimilation! You could even add a post stage 5 when one rejects what was once familiar, but I think that's in denial of who he/she is. (Note that these phases were picked up somewhere during my researching about overseas Chinese and diasporic communities, all worth a read.)
Personally I've always had a dread of assimilation (overtones of "borg-ish behaviour") and it also feels too much like allowing a new environment overrun part of the self, where one is from, how values were shaped etc. Assimilation feels too much like an easy way out. But maybe it's merely the connotations of the word, like "conflict" - tend to think of it in a negative light but it's not necessarily so. The tension experienced may therefore be the point between stage 3 and 4. But all this is mere theorising. Just try to avoid becoming schizoid mister.
So yeah, this is my rather long comment to your very interesting blog. Scarily, I'm in danger of writing more in your blog than in mine.
PS Hello Alice!
phew sarah, your brain is like an engine. I miss our chats.
AL. ! never mind, next time.
Hi Neil Hi Sarah
I have never had so many problems with being Chinese yet not Chinese as this past year - and I never thought I'd be struggling with sense of identity more so at 26yrs old than 16!
Being in Holland has given me some interesting experiences on how the Chinese think here, and like you Neil I seem to have more of a passion for British football (coming from the scouser that never watched a whole match in her life before 26!). You could say I am disappointed Chinese people don't seem to want to make an effort here to integrate. My biggest despair came from a localborn Chinese 14yr old who specifially told me "I only hang around with my Asian friends as I hate Dutch people" I'm embarrassed to be Chinese now ...
Alice
you're in holland! I'm so out of date with news. How many kids do you have?
All I'd say is I have had similar experiences, especially with white blokes behaviour out here can be a bit shameful sometimes.
People are people, sometimes they stink, its not a chinese problem. You balance the fourteen year old Al, being sutch a kind and welcoming person who's parents give free food to poor students on Egberth road.
There was a moment that I thought I was having AS level Chinese (culture) lessons while reading your blog...
Anyway, we all have our own conflicts. You could say that I'm a mix of chinese, american and british (predominantly chinese, though...never been out of asia, btw), but you can also say that I'm just...me. I do think that showing tendency to have "qualities of people of other nationalities" could mean that you actually have those qualities, you just didn't know it was hidden inside you before. Exposure to foreign (or local) culture just brings them to the surface, I guess?
When I started learning more about chinese culture this year (required subject!...), I realised that I'm more chinese than I think I am.
Btw, Hong Kong is not really that chinese.
(Oh...forgot to identify myself...I'm Johnathan, from Carmel SS. My...weblog is here)
(Nisan...Hebrew month?)
What, in the name of Harry Potter's broomstick, is a Blog?
Signed: K.C.G. Thomas (Aged 62 and rather detached from the field of present-day runners and riders.)
well, vati, 'Blog' is a neologism, one of the many associated with the internet. It is a contraction of 'web log' or online diary. Getting very popular now. Well Done for figureing it all out!! Nice to see your comments.
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