@liztai I don't know that much about the Chinese diaspora (except that it exists and roughly where it's located) but I find it interesting how the feeling of being Chinese is still so strong.
I guess I can't help comparing with Europe where usually you're "from" where you were born after two generations or so.
I have a Spanish or Catalan last name (I'm not even sure), a Flemish grandma and I'm also partly German (from the 19th Century), but I don't feel that any of those are part of my culture or identity. I'm a SouthWestern French because this is where I grew up, basically, and despite only one of my four grandparents being from there.
And that's pretty much the same for all Europeans I know (after two or three generations, your "roots" become irrelevant)
That's why I always facepalm when White Americans tell me that they're French or Italian or whatever because they know of one ancestor that's from there ("No, sorry, you're American.")
But it is different with the Chinese diaspora because, as you mentioned, you all still have a lot of customs and cultural practices coming from China.
When I lived in Paris, I knew one guy who was French from Vietnam but from the Chinese diaspora if that makes sense. When you asked him about his cultural identity, he just shrugged.
My parents' neighbor (basically my third grandma, I was closer to her than to one real grandma) was from Vietnam too, and she had one Chinese grandparent. When you asked her about her identity, she said French citizen of Vietnamese culture. She never felt Chinese.
@DavidBHimself this maybe because in Malaysia we are able to remain distinctively different. Meaning, there's no pressure to "be Malaysian". For eg, in Indonesia most Chinese are not allowed to have Chinese names or even speak Chinese at one point. However, for us, we never had that pressure or law. Many Chinese still go to Chinese schools, for one.
@liztai I guess the diversity of the diaspora experience is interesting. The "Chinese" part of me has very little to do with identification with the country China and I don't really have protective feelings over it
... And iirc we have had a conversation about 5000 years old civilization, you know my thoughts on that!
@geraineon Am definitely more aligned to SEA, but SEA isn't getting crazy skewed press, but once they get all of that, you will see me being angry about that too lol.
@geraineon Haha I used to be like you, I never related to my Chinese part, mostly because most Chinese people treated me like "one kind" and of course my own parents told me not to be too Chinese lol.
But overtime I guess I reconnected cos I'm learning Mandarin, reading Chinese classics and grew to be proud of my heritage.
It has to be a strange thing tho, how we don't seem to want that part of our heritage ...
@geraineon About the 5000 years thing, that sentence was meant to be ironic lol. But the more I look into this, the more confused I am about the issue. Let's just settle with "China is hella old".
@liztai ah a lil different! I have never doubted I am Chinese, and yeah sure some ppl call me banana but I was always secure in my "Chinese-ness"? I guess?
I grew up watching tvb, I watched Cantonese opera with my grandmother, my family was Taoist, we went to temples, we had an altar, etc. culturally, I grew up enmeshed in it so it will be weird if I didn't feel a connection to my cultural background. I'm not proud but I'm not not proud, if I have to describe it
@geraineon Yea I suppose I'm the same, though trying to find more balance so that I don't become whispers pro-China or something lol.
I actually grew up not feeling very secure about my Chinese-ness, mostly due to my looks. Till this day I'm asked, "Are you Chinese?". When I was a kid, people often mistook me for being Malay or Eurasian. Maybe cos of the wavy hair, the pointed nose, the double eyelids I don't know haha. Also, pretty sure my family is mixed, just never kept records ;D
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