9 October 2000
Wai Kwok Cheung

When I was ten years old, I was asked this interesting question by a classmate, at the time it was a question that I pondered and as a British born Chinese child, I wondered why I could not answer this question. Obviously being Chinese I should automatically know the answer to all questions, no matter how obscure, concerning any aspect of being Chinese, the Chinese community, culture, China and Hong Kong and indeed any far reaching aspects of the Pan Pacific Countries! After all, to all intents and purposes I was Chinese, I have Chinese parents and I was raised eating rice out of a bowl and using chop sticks.

So as a twenty five year old Chinese Male, these questions still arise, but in a different light. To what extent am I really Chinese and how much of my heritage have I already lost being born in this country, being termed that famous acronym 'BBC', a British Born Chinese. There are thousands out there like me, where do we stand and more importantly where are we supposed to be heading? Even by stating this there a danger of crossing a thin line of distinction. Amongst us BBC's and us local Chinese there are apparent factions, we form, we divide and then we become newer breeds who then go onto form ever more diverse groups of Westernised Chinese. We seem to plonk ourselves into a role and we stick to it until we find another role which best portray our lifestyles and then we start to slowly adopt that way of thought until something new comes along.

There are identifiable groups of thought; the ones who be believe they are 100% Chinese, following the trends laid out by the setters in Hong Kong, who in turn adopt their influences from Japan! With blond dyed hair, designer clothes and the ability to memorise six thousand different Canto-pop songs, constant arguing as to who speaks better Cantonese, and once exhausted who speaks better Mandarin. Watching Ekin Chen's triad films is a must and so is hanging around the dance machine in the local video arcades.

On the other extreme are the ones who shun their Chinese heritage, they will try hard to imply the point that "I am English" by having exclusively Western friends and lots of them as well. There seems to be a need to feel unique and to stand out from the "Chinese" crowd, frowning upon the lack of musical integrity that Canto-pop contains. They perceive their parents as being such traditional Chinese folk, it becomes too frustrating trying to communicate on their wavelengths, certainly they would disapprove of their Western partners. Strangely their parents will call them a "Banana", typically yellow on the outside and white on the inside, however it is their Western friends who will be the first to point out that they are Chinese and will carry on that strange playground inquisitiveness. Instead this time their friends have become older and the questions more sophisticated, "So what do you think of China taking back Hong Kong?"

Then there are the ones who have already been through all the stages and just end up where they started, slap bang in the middle, it is like a rites of passage. It is destined for you to go through all these routes before you finally determine what you are as a Chinese being brought up in a Western society. Everything melds together and you start to question your environment and upbringing, it becomes easier as you realise that you are able to accept both sides of the equation subsequently developing a way of thinking which neither rejects your heritage nor does it limit your exposure to Western society.

So are we confused being brought up in the United Kingdom? There are a multitude of forces which seems to be directing us in opposing directions. My parents take every opportunity to embellish the virtues and the idealistic values, that only a Chinese family has, onto me and my two sisters. In their eyes we, as a culture, are a world apart with an endless stream of Chinese traits that make our family stable and close knit. It is like a top ten of social issues which they have quantified as being correct through experience and observation, "Look at that white family, divorced already", "Why are those white kids on the street?", "English parents don't support their children through university", the list is endless.

We obviously listen to our parents, even if it is through obligation, but then being brought up in this country we cannot help but empathise with and befriend English people. We have no choice, we study with them, we work with them and sometimes live with them. We therefore cannot but help feel that our parents have given them a raw deal, and certainly we feel obliged to defend our Western friends. School, media, music, film and TV are all major influences that we were brought up with. The British pace of life feels comforting, British food is blandly tasteful, we allow Western music and British television to subliminally influence us, indeed it is apparent for many that English is our first language.

It is only with the same experience and observations, that our parent have already been through, that we notice these subtle differences between them and us. It can be quite a revelation and a surprise, these were always issues that we believed were differences between our parents and the English. However these differences become apparent and you end up incorporating them into your way of life, you become accepting of the fact that there will always be differences. There is, however, one over riding statement that bears true in my mind, "when you visit your Chinese friends and their families, they will always offer you food or include you in their meal, no matter how unintentional your visit was, in the majority of the cases the Western family or friend will make you wait in the other room until they have finished eating". It is almost like a yes/no test, you can test this statement over a period of visits, tally up at the end and then analyse your findings.

So it would appear that we will never be as complete a Chinese as those from Hong Kong, yet at the same time we will always be aware of the fundamental differences which exists between us as BBC's and us as English citizens. Interestingly there is a saying which appears to hold true, "The Chinese think we are Western and the Western think we are Chinese"!