January 24, 2012, by Kay
Enter the Dragon
So your facebook has probably been clogged with status after status from all of your Asian friends about CNY and the Year of the Dragon and all that. Yeah, it’s the ‘most prosperous’ year apparently. People go crazy trying to have babies just so they get a better, luckier start in life it’s pretty funny.
Momma and Poppa Li have jetted off to celebrate the new year in Hong Kong.
The majority of my family are in Hong Kong or hailed from there. I’m actually born and raised in County Durham but I do feel a homely kind of connection to ‘the motherland’
It’s a bit of an identity crisis because I’m not totally fluent in any dialect of Chinese. I can hold a conversation in my parent’s native dialect (Hakka Chinese) and vaguely understand Cantonese, whilst studying some Mandarin here and there.
Hopefully after I graduate I can dedicate the time and energy to really learning Cantonese and Mandarin properly. It’s funny because sometimes I don’t feel really Chinese because of my language failings.
The entering of the dragon has triggered a lot of fellow Asians to poke fun at what it’s like to be a BBC (British born Chinese) with native Chinese parents and some of funny common attributes that a lot of us have had growing up…
‘You got a B+?… B+ ….you dishonour our family…your cousin gets A*s in everything you know!’
okay maybe I’m exaggerating
‘No boyfriends til after university!..no boyfriends til you married’
I think a lot of British born ethnic kids are in the same boat. If you have parents hailing from a different country (in fact, I had this conversation with my Kenyan flatmate and apparently there’s a similar trend with some Kenyan parents too) and the odd occasion your cultures will clash.
Below are some photos from recently years of celebrating the Chinese New Year. Although this year I was in the Djanogly Library on Jubilee, I hope to celebrate at some point after my exam this Friday.
Love Kay
- Tending to the shrine with dad 2009
Lion Dance in a shopping centre 2009
'Chinglish' toiletry packaging somewhere in Hong Kong
love the culture, thanks for sharing.