We were just having a normal conversation under the warm Adelaide sun when she said, “I hate Chinese people. Hate them.”
I stared at her, wondering if she realised that I am Chinese.
I rarely write about #politics but I feel it’s important to describe the impact of rising #USChinaTensions on a “normie” member of the #Chinese diaspora. It's this: Sheer, utter frustration and exasperation.
This is the best frozen har gow. It tastes better than many lower end takeout dimsum spots in San Francisco. Just steam or microwave it yourself at home.
I know this because I’ve eaten many bad frozen har gows before finding this one!
Dafuq with calling Yang Guo (杨过) "Penance". I don't care if that is what his name means whatever but you dont have to translate Chinese names like that. I can't take this translation of Jin Yong's book seriously omg 💀
Like, there's this character in Mysterious Lotus Casebook called "Duo Bing", can you imagine if you call him "Always Sick"?? Chinese names don't have to be direct translations omg
My #Dad, aged 27, at #RefugeeCamp in #Indonesia - 1979. Photo was taken by humanitarian aid workers to help #VietnamWar#refugees get sponsored to go to Europe, Canada, USA & Australia, under asylum.
My Dad passed away June 9, 2023.
He went through hell & back, several times. He beat almost all odds. Until #covid infection in hospital in 2022. #LongCovid killed him last year.
For more context, people in China have been assembling plain white bread sandwiches to try to understand how we live in this part of the world, and they are posting through it (the idea of eating anything cold or raw, especially a vegetable, is seen as especially disgusting in the Chinese world, with some exceptions)
#Cholon was the 1st #ChineseSettlement established in #Vietnam in 2nd half of 17th century, after the fall of the #MingDynasty in #China, by the people who remained loyal to the fallen emperor and exiled to Vietnam.
Then, later during the 18th century, a 2nd wave of #Chinese immigration arrived to Cholon, as a consequence of the demographic pressure in China.
*My patriarch ancestors fled from China in 18th century & starting rebuilding life in Saigon. This thread is about where we lived.
I got the wavy hair gene from my mum's side, where almost everyone has wavy/curly hair. My curls are not as prominent, but some days it just decides "I am gonna be crazy today!"
My #hair only got like this after puberty, and before that it was typical ramrod straight and my mum would give me the China doll hairstyle (which I loathed).
Since most Chinese had straight hair this made me even more confused about my already salad cultural roots & feel less #Chinese.
A habit I am starting is to write a short sentence, like a diary entry, in Chinese every day. My writing is horrendous but this is one of the ways I am trying to remember the characters.
Another funny thing about being #Chinese with wavy hair. When I was in school, students were not allowed to perm their hair. When my hair got noticeably curlier after I hit 13, it was regularly fondled by the prefects to see if I was wearing hair gel/mousse. Of course some accused me of perming my hair, but fortunately it got nowhere. #Malaysian schools were really draconian weren't they? 😅😆
Found my first public school photo in a shoebox today.
I cried for an hour prior, was still crying when put on seat in front of photographer & was forced by teacher to get my photo taken. I didn't want any photos done. I was 5 yrs old. This was at Hampton elementary school.
#Mandarin#Language learning progress: 30/100 characters learned & memorised so far. HSK 2 vocab nearly 80% done. I may complete HSK 4 vocab in Q1 after all.
May be upping my goal for learning characters to 1000 by end of 2024. My brain seems to like the Tofu Learning app's flashcard system. Things actually stick!
I gave myself a very low bar of learning 100 characters this year. I am currently using the free app Tofu Learn to learn my characters and I have learned 20 characters in 20 days. The app has lots of decks that you can download to use, and I am using one where they teach you the radicals, then give you a story why the radicals combined makes said word. This proved to be very effective for me as the story behind the word makes it easier for to remember it.
Every week I do my #Taiwanese language homework, panic about how ‘I don’t know these words’, then realize that all the words I don’t know are the Taigi words that originated from Japanese
Also, I have to zoom in to see how to write some traditional characters, coz I’m getting old (and I actually only know how to write simplified)
#CornelWest, the celebrity academic (formerly of Harvard and Princeton), fiery antiracism campaigner, and current #GreenParty pres. candidate, has a long association with the #Democratic#Socialists of America, having served as the group’s honorary chairman
But as he campaigns for president, West is moving beyond the DSA and forging bonds with far-left activists who call for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, who support the #Chinese and #NorthKorean regimes