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TOPIC

Being Chinese

Being Chinese
Being Chinese is an occasional column that contemplates and explores the cultural, existential and related aspects of Chinese experience, whether the writers are Chinese by birth, descent or osmosis.
A view of Lieshen village in Chongqing on August 15. Photo: Xinhua
China society

Being Chinese | Young Chinese are trying out the simple life. Am I missing out?

My generation has never known an economic slump lasting a number of years. Some friends are taking the opportunity to slow down.

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Hong Kong society

Being Chinese | Half a world away from Hong Kong, I had a Chinese epiphany

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | I crave a sense of community. Is that my Chinese side talking?

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Hong Kong society

Being Chinese | An ‘elegant’ English name would be all wrong for my Hong Kong baby

My daughter, a child of multiple cultures, needs a carefully chosen name in a city where racial difference is not seamlessly accepted.

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Young residents from diverse backgrounds holding new mainland travel permits return to Hong Kong in 2024, after a trip to Guangzhou and Foshan. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
China society

Being Chinese | I escaped a Chinese guoxue ‘reading group’. My friend is less lucky

The trend of ‘national studies’ unsettled me. Packaged in Chinese symbols – robes, incense, ancient wisdom – much of it felt too commodified.

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Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | What’s in a Singaporean Chinese name? It’s a long story

In the US, I’ve been assumed to be Taiwanese, mainland Chinese or Korean. It’s like watching people play charades using my business card.

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Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | Dating in the UK, Chinese auntie-style

Looking for a life partner as a 40-something Asian woman in the UK, I found success in unexpected ways.

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Newlyweds pose next to a red telephone booth in London on May 24. Dating today is not always about searching for a spouse, but for a compatible person to share life with. Photo: AFP
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | People laugh in my face when I say I’m Chinese. So what?

I don’t look Chinese. But it’s the tiny things, values and cultural touchpoints that collectively make a Chinese person Chinese.

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China society

Being Chinese | I’m not ‘lying flat’, just choosing a saner lifestyle than China’s 996

In China, work culture is shifting and companies are sending employees home earlier. I chose balance over fatigue before the tide turned.

Chinese tourists

Being Chinese | Once a Chinese frog in a well, I’m now living my travel dreams

When China opened up and millions went abroad, it influenced everything from fashion and cuisine to values and perspectives.

A Chinese tourist throws wheat while dressed up as a bride for a traditional Serbian wedding experience in Gostoljublje, a village near the Serbian town of Kosjeric, in 2019. The year before the pandemic hit, Chinese tourists topped the world in outbound spending. Photo: AFP
US-China relations

Being Chinese | I’m a Cannes-going Chinese showbiz producer. It’s fun – except when it isn’t

I make deals with international studios and platforms. Often, I face a wall of Western presumption about the Chinese way of doing things.

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Chinese actress Fan Bingbing arrives for a screening at the Cannes film festival in 2023. Being a Chinese entertainment deal maker with a cross-border focus is less fun and exciting in reality. Photo: AFP
Women and gender

Being Chinese | I identify as a Chinese auntie, cheapskate and busybody. Anyone else?

I revel in low prices and awkward questions. I’m finding that being a Chinese auntie overseas also means being part of an Asian sisterhood.

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Singapore

Being Chinese | In Singapore, my children are freer to be happy than I was in China

Having been through China’s pressure-cooker education system, I appreciate how Singapore balances Eastern discipline and Western creativity.

Women and gender

Being Chinese | How far Chinese women have come since my grandmother’s time

I have more equal status than my grandmother did in the pre-communist era. But young women are still pushing back against discrimination.

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Women in period costume record a dance with a phone in Beijing on February 25. Photo: EPA-EFE
Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | I look Chinese but don’t speak the language. Is that so bad?

I may be missing out on a deeper appreciation of the culture, but I’ve learned to live with it – thank goodness for translation apps.

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Halloween revellers pack Hong Kong’s party zone, Lan Kwai Fong, on October 26. Photo: Nora Tam
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | Why don’t we say ‘I love you’ in Chinese? Let me count the reasons

Chinese speakers like me have been trained to understand the difference between ‘aiyah’ and ‘aiyaah’, and things left unsaid among loved ones.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | To know who we are, China must remain open to foreigners

Interactions with the outside world have shaped my identity as a Chinese and a human being, opening my eyes to the value of cultural exchange.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | My Hong Kong crash course in Chinese calculations of everything

Some autumns ago, a midlife crisis brought me to Hong Kong, where it has been inspiring how savvy people are about Chinese cosmology.

A man stops to read an advertisement in Yau Ma Tei in 2021 for a feng shui master’s services for Chinese zodiac signs facing a challenging year. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | The beauty of being a filial Chinese daughter

Despite the caregiving challenges, there’s a beauty in accepting filial piety is not a choice but a necessity: roles and responsibilities are clear.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | Who’s Singaporean and stressing over Lunar New Year food abroad? Not me

Grappling with being the sole source of Singapore Chinese culture for my children, I have focused on transmitting it through food.

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Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | No stereotypes please, overseas Chinese students are a wonderful mix

By no stretch of any imagination can one reduce Chinese students in the UK to a uniform, faceless tribe, as my cohort once was.

Graduates toss caps at the University of Portsmouth in 2015. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | How my Malaysian Chinese education is paying off

Malaysian Chinese have paid a heavy price for Chinese-medium schools, but for my generation, that investment is reaping dividends.

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People visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on August 22. Photo: AFP
Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | I may not use my ‘beautiful’ Chinese name often, but I’m glad of the gift

My father was renamed when a Briton couldn’t make out his Chinese name. I’m grateful for mine, though I now use a name that confounds some.

Chinese culture

Being Chinese | English took me out of a Chinese factory, but not China out of me

I learned English as a bored young factory worker and began writing in it to avoid censorship. But my decision has come with pros and cons.

Chinese culture

Being Chinese | We’re Chinese and we fight to pay for dinner

Economic and societal shifts have forced me to reconsider the fight-to-pay ritual at multi-generation family gatherings.

At the end of a Chinese family meal, it is common to see the tug of war over who picks up the bill. Photo: Shutterstock
China’s soft power

Being Chinese | In US vs Chinese soft power, guess how children are voting?

As children around me get sucked into the rabbit hole of Disney, Marvel and Netflix, I wonder about the reach of Chinese culture.

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Children have a chat at Shanghai Disney Resort in 2020. Photo: Reuters
Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | From my Chinese Malaysian childhood, a lifelong reality check

A defining childhood moment came when I was warned my identity as a Chinese female would count as ‘two strikes’ against me.

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China society

Being Chinese | What’s come between China and It bags? Maybe it’s not just the economy

Chinese may be growing out of their obsession with high-end Western brands, like how I outgrew my fascination with ‘decadent Western’ jeans.

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