A Banana in Mini-English Corner

After class, I met with a student of mine so that she could practice speaking English with me. She ended up leaving around half-past 5 so that I could study a little bit of Chinese before I met with my tutor. As I was reviewing, a small band of students migrated in, eager to practice their English with me, before their English-Corner at 6pm. English Corner is weekly, where the foreign teachers and English majors meet and practice their oral English. I had met some of them before and I didn't mind taking a few minutes to converse with them.

They were very curious why I looked like them, but could speak English so well AND why didn't I speak Chinese. One girl said, "You are an ABC (American Born Chinese)!". I nodded my head, as I couldn't speak since my mouth was full with banana. She then pointed at my hand gripping the banana and exclaimed, "We also call you a 'banana'!". I sort of chuckled and slightly nodded my head.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, calling a Chinese person basically means: "you are yellow on the outside and white on the inside." Thus, you are a banana; you look Chinese on the outside, but your insides are white. I don't mind being named an ABC because for the most part that's true, but I feel that while I grew up in America, I definitely have some Chinese values and beliefs in me. While I know she did not mean that as an insult, I usually associate the labeling of 'banana' as someone who is not happy being Chinese and wanting to be "white"; this is NOT the case with me. Speaking of bananas, a few weeks ago, I took a picture of my twin banana (no, the banana did not look like me):

Although I am proud of being Chinese-American, in class today, a student asked me which country I felt more patriotic for: China or the United States. I explained to her that I was born and raised in America, so of course, I have more patriotic feelings for the U.S. (even though we've done alot of crummy things in a myriad of places in the world), but I am also extremely proud of my heritage.

We then talked about China-Japan relations. This was a huge issue for her, understandably so, as the Japanese have committed many, unspeakable atrocities, especially in Nanjing, which has been called "The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II" by Iris Chang, in her book, 'The Rape of Nanking'. I highly recommend this book (while researching this a little bit on the web, I just found out, even though this happened in 2004, that Iris Change committed suicide, you can read about it here, if you have NY Times access, if you don't, sorry, I can't afford the $1,000 to share it with everyone).

My student asked me about my feelings towards Japanese people. I explained that while I realize that the Japanese committed many atrocities, it happened in the past and I do not harbor any ill-feelings towards currently. However, I disagree with the Japanese government's policy about covering up what Japanese soldiers did during WWII. The government has given their citizens' a revisionist history of what happened. While I understand that the leaders want to foster nationalism, I don't agree with it. Japan, however, is not alone in rewriting history, I think many countries are guilty of this, especially the U.S. Nevertheless, people can still feel proud of their country and know what past atrocities have been committed.

On another note, one of the students guessed that I'm 19 years old, that kind of nice, I guess. I think my hair is getting out of control. I am in serious need of one, but I'm trying to figure out a different hairstyle. Any suggestions?

Birthday Fun

I turned 27 years old yesterday and at first I thought, "eh, its only 27" but when it actually happened, I felt odd as I am only 3 years away from 30. Maybe its because most of the people in the program are younger than me that has made me feel old. For example, I had mentioned that my high school classmates are planning our 10th year reunion and my friends in the cab were shocked. One of them said that in 1998, he was in seventh grade!

Regardless of turning 27, yesterday was interesting for me because I've started to delve into the paradigms of being an "ABC" (American Born Chinese) and now living in . I've heard mixed feelings from the couple of Chinese-American Teachers who have already gone through the program.

Their students could not fathom how someone who looks like them could not speak their language, which is my case and kind of exemplifies the "ABC" phenomenon Furthermore, they experienced some discrimination by other Asians! When the foreigners sat at a dinner table, they made the ABCs eat at a different table because even though they were American, they still looked Chinese and were not worthy enough to eat at the visitors' table.

I had some anticipation of this sort of treatment, after all, I experience it all the time in the US. Questions like "so, where are you from?" my answer: Connecticut, their response "no, I meant where are you from?" my answer: Connecticut. Nevertheless, in a way, I was hoping to find some sort of connection, besides appearance, with my Chinese ancestry. I guess we'll have to see how it plays out.

In keeping with my Asian heritage, I took a pose with Bruce Lee:



Anyhoo, I had a great birthday. The folks in the program were super great and got me a cake and card. We went out to Victoria Peak which has some spectacular, panoramic views of Kowloon.

Usually, when I stand on the balcony, there are clear views of the beach and somewhat out into the ocean, but yesterday, I was able to see the islands and beyond because it was there were no clouds or pollution. This was the perfect set up for going up to Victoria Peak, and I took a video and am digging this new video option on blogspot: