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   Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾 (liztai@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 24-Feb-2024 12:04:34 JST Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾

   On being Chinese but not quite Chinese enough. Ie, what it's like being a "banana".

   This is usually for my blog subscribers, but I've made it available for #Mastodon peeps for a few days. ;)

   #Culture #Chinese #Languages #Mandarin

   http://elizabethtai.com/2024/02/24/hello-from-a-banana/

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     Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾 (liztai@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 24-Feb-2024 12:42:11 JST Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾

     in reply to

     • ubi

     @ubi hahaha this is a "more real" description!

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     ubi (ubi@ecoevo.social)'s status on Saturday, 24-Feb-2024 12:42:12 JST ubi

     in reply to

     @liztai I reject the term banana and prefer Langsat. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside, but dig even deeper and you find a hidden bitterness.

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     DavidB (davidbhimself@firefish.city)'s status on Saturday, 24-Feb-2024 13:15:52 JST DavidB

     in reply to

     @liztai@hachyderm.io 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.

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     Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾 (liztai@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 24-Feb-2024 13:15:52 JST Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾

     in reply to

     • DavidB

     @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.