The Real Truth

There has been recent discussion ( asian-sirens.com)  on my ethnicity/nationality simply because I don’t look Chinese. I thought I’d write a meaningless entry about it to clear it up! First of all, I am pure Chinese. On my paternal side (where we have a charted family tree that dates back more than 4-5 generations), my late grandmother-who was educated and spoke English, was one of the descendants of the early Straits Chinese originating from Penang. My grandfather and his brother settled in Teluk Intan originating from Fujian in the early 40s. My grandaunts were all educated in English which meant I had more information about my very Chinese heritage when I did some soul searching in 2002. On my maternal side, my grandmother was the only living grandparent I ever knew and I only spoke to her in Hokkien. My late grandmother spent her entire life in Malaysia without ever stepping foot outside of the country. She’d tell me stories about poverty in Malaysia and about her mother with bound Lotus feet. If foot-binding isn’t Chinese, then I don’t know what is.

Secondly, It may seem like I’m lying for the “sake of my career” but honestly, being PURE chinese doesn’t help much out here. I think there are much more perks with half-breeds in Malaysia than anything! For instance, writers often enjoy explaining how someone is of mixed parentage, some kind of unique Eurasian blend or even containing the bloodline of some tribe. The personalities that dominate this urban English market are mixed and most commercials scour for the unique “pan-Asian” look. So coming in as a pure Chinese without any foreign blend to my advantage was an immense challenge. Thank God for my Canadian accent, eh? (hahahhaa) So as much as I’d like to lie about how exotic my features are attributed from 1/32 of Portugese and 1/64 of Mongolian, my parentage only goes as far as Teluk Intan and Jalan Ipoh!!!

On that note, I decided to eat a very non-Chinese dinner tonight: Large Big Mac Meal with Apple Pie. BOO-YAH!