When I was a kid the term banana was used to describe a chinese person living in Britain that was culturally westernised - the banana being a metaphor for the chinese person who was yellow on the outside but white on the inside!
Today while watching a children's programme featuring a chinese american family, the character mentioned this, and realised that his family were not chinese enough, as they had fully embraced being American since moving to the US while he was a child.
This made me think about my own family. As a kid i think we enjoyed the best of both worlds. Our parents introduced us to chinese culture and practices from a young age so that I did not feel there was an identity crisis, I would (and still do) consider myself to be very Chinese. I then turn to my own children who are half Chinese, cannot speak the language and know very little about the culture except Chinese New Year (which they learn about in school). Will they have an identity crisis? Hope not.
There were certain things my parents prevented us from doing as it was not Chinese for us to do so, things that normal teenagers would take for granted. I am glad really looking back on my childhood, that my parents didnt let us get too westernised as me and my siblings have great memories of all the chinese things we used to do (learning Chinese at Sunday School, eating out at Chinese restaurants, learning to speak Chinese by watching Chinese dramas on video, Chinese New Year celebrations and for my brothers visits to Hong Kong).
Although I do not know a lot of Chinese youth, I noticed that they are more Westernised and less likely to be able to speak Cantonese, as their parents work hard to provide them with the luxuries of the world, they are neglected and a barrier is placed between them (suppose it's the same for families of all different cultures)
Anyway back to Bananas, I like them before they go too spotty and black, but not too ripe. Dont put them in the fridge and apart from the potassium I read in a book once, that they have little nutritional value. You can get banana plastic holders to put your bananas in so they dont get battered and bruised in your lunchbox (genius idea) and when I was a kid they had a programme I used to watch called Banana Splits (youtube what would we do without you??)
I was lucky enough to attend a citizenship ceremony last week. My sister in law (originally from Pakistan) was given a British Nationality and was awarded a certificate and invited to attend a ceremony. There were 30 other nervous foreigners all waiting anxiously in the waiting room for the ceremony to begin. Each person was given a card with a number on it, they were then called into a reception room where they took their seats with their designated numbers on them. Each were given a card to read from which they were made to read in unison. They must all promise to swear allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen and her country. This was after we were given a speech about how great this country is and how multi-cultural our city is and the benefits of living in the United Kingdom.
You could tell that half the people attending were not really concerned much about these issues, the reasons why they want to live in the UK vary from one person to another. I do agree that if any such person does not abide by the law of the country they should leave, as they have literally taken an oath that they will not do anything to harm the country in any way shape or form.
Immigration rules are much tighter than they were 10 or 15 years ago, which is a good thing. However, with the UK being part of the EU, there has been an increase in workers coming into the UK from the EU, so although immigration levels are lower than previous years, the figures dont paint the full picture. Although many are successful in their applications, those seeking asylum are quite often refused. My sister in law had to do the citizenship test, which I am sure most Britons would probably fail!
I was just happy for my sister in law that she is now officially British, I told her she has to lose her accent now. Our primary aim was to make her laugh while she was taking her pledge, but she knew what we were up to and turned her back against us whilst she pretended to read it!!
We all then stood up for the national anthem.
I am losing my memory, rapidly. Help! I was in the supermarket the other day and rang my sister in law to ask her if she needed anything, she said coke and crisps, i then spoke to her for another minute before putting the phone down, and when I did, I could not for the life of me remember what else she wanted with the coke!! I had to text her back and ask her, it was so embarassing.
I dont understand, I am very good at the memory games on all them brain training games!! I need to improve my memory as it is essential for studying and everyday living.
Memorisation tips anyone??
This wasnt even my original post, I wanted to post something a few days ago, but now I cant remember what it was so i typed this instead, AHHHHHH!!
its that time of the year again when chinese people in my local area get together and celebrate chinese new year, as a child I used to love this time of the year, as i get money and we as a family would go and eat then watch chinese lion dancing and firecrackers in Chinatown.
Nowadays its packed with tourists making it very difficult to see anything, so I dont bother going to Chinatown during the celebrations.
I was born in the Year of the Tiger, like one of my sons, that probably explains why I have a soft spot for tigers.
Although first and foremost I am a Muslim,I am extremely proud of being Chinese, we have a lot of history and culture (just ignore the human rights abuses in China for one moment), we have tacky chinese dramas and music like everyone else and a lovely colourful language (which unfortunately my children haven;t picked up) as well as weird little nuances that make a person distinctly "Chinese"
Since becoming a Muslim, one of the things I do miss is eating out at Chinese restaurants as most of the food is off the menu, there are a few halal restaurants that do serve Chinese food, but they are not authentic! I dont miss eating the pork though, no matter how many times people try and tell me it tastes nice, I was never a fan of spare ribs, I was more a Chicken person anyway!
My nephew went to visit Chinatown with his school and when he came back I told him I was chinese, he didnt believe me, he said I look like a Muslim, when I tell my kids I am Chinese, my son said im not yellow im an orange colour!
They had a Chinese New Year assembly at my son's school last week, I couldnt go because I was at Uni, but my son told me they made a red dragon out of paper and that he would be holding it up and swaying it back and forth with his classmates. He didnt enjoy the experience as he wanted to hold the dragon's head, so he (as i was told) spent the time holding the dragon with a miserable look on his face.
