| Dual identity |
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| Monday, 21 August 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The last time I wrote about mixed race relationships, I talked about my marriage to my husband Andrew. (See Char siu buns and haggis make a winning combination) To quickly recap, he’s Scottish and I’m Chinese and I wrote about the differences our respective cultures brought to our relationship.I always thought that a test of how the two cultures would meet is when we had children. Fast forward a few years and we’re now parents to our gorgeous toddler Oscar. While being very much his own person, I hope that Oscar’s inherited the best of our genes – he’s got my almond eyes and Andrew’s height and depending on the light and angle, he honestly can look either Chinese or Scottish. Oscar’s hair colour has also caused a great deal of comments. During the summer, his hair colour was similar to his dad’s – a lightish brown -but it’s slowly turning darker. Even we’re curious to know what shade it will be during the cold, winter months. There are some Chinese traditions that Oscar enjoyed from a very early age. Within a week of his birth, he’d been given a lovely gold and jade necklace from his adoring granny and a few red packets turned up among the baby clothes. During the weaning stage, Oscar also hoovered up rice. However, as risotto and basmati are also favourites, I’m beginning to think that rather than staying true to his roots, he’s just a carbohydrate kind of guy. But he has finally accepted pak choi after months and months of encouragement and I’m hoping to add beansprouts to the ever expanding list of foods he enjoys. While my Chinese is at a very basic level, now he’s of talking age, I’m also teaching him the odd Chinese word. He can already say thank you and good morning and we’ve decided that he’ll attend Chinese school when he’s a little older. Who knows, I may even join him although of course I wouldn’t want to embarrass him in front of his new friends! My older sister, a fluent Mandarin speaker, has also promised that she’ll come up and give him one to one tuition. Ideally, I want Oscar to meet and mix with other Chinese boys and girls and not grow up too confused and alienated from his cultural background. We’re already lucky enough to know a few Chinese mum’s and mixed race children and although Edinburgh isn’t as cosmopolitan as London, it’s still got a semi-decent ethnic mix and one that I hope will continue progressing. Doris Lee Butterworth
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