I love being an ABC. And of course when I say ABC, I mean Australian Born Chinese.
Admittedly, out of the A – B – C spectrum, I would call myself more ‘C’. (As in, more Chinese than Australian). I listen to asian music, watch asian movies, take asian holidays and watch asian vloggers. I play more ‘asian’ sports like ping pong, badminton etc…
My husband however is more ‘A’. He likes team sports, and the only chinese he can read is mahjong and yum cha. At least he can write his name 🙂 and he can speak a little.
There are obvious reasons – of course being that you get to experience the best of both worlds
FOOD! (being one) and having family with roots in guangdong province makes it even better!
But yes, it hasn’t been easy. Being from two cultures often means that you don’t feel like you belong to either.
When I go to Hong Kong or China I feel like a westerner. When we went a few years back, they were appalled that we couldn’t speak mandarin. On the outside though, we seemed just like them as they never approached us on Nanjing road to buy those fake handbags (only the white guys on our trip) but once we opened our mouths it really showed.
When I’m Australia I navigate towards the asian places e.g. Eastwood, Chatswood, Burwood…and our area is Ashfield and Campsie. Our church is in Cabramatta. So in Aus I feel more asian and comfortable around asians. I cook asian food, eat asian food..
So now I guess I’m just comfortable identifying myself as ABC – not just asian, not just australian. The same can be said of Asian Americans I guess, and most people who are bi-cultural. How do you identify yourself culturally?
Grace Lung 