The Chinese Have a Saying... 中国有一句话……

One of the major influences that sparked my interest in Chinese language and culture is my 老爷 (my mom's dad). Every time i see my grandfather, he always loves to give advice via chinese sayings and always starts with “中国有一句话......" (the Chinese have a saying....) Here are two that are close to my heart. Not necessarily the pinnacles of Chinese poetry, but just the two that he repeated the most. he always told me as a kid to remind me to calm down when I was angry, or to not fight with my parents or brother. (sorry for the unprofessional translation)

莫生气
Dont be Angry

人生就像一场戏，因为有缘才相聚。
Life is just like a show, only due to fate were we able to be together.

相扶到老不容易，是否更该去珍惜。
To help each other until old age is not easy, then shouldn't we appreciate each other even more?

为了小事发脾气，回头想想又何必。
Getting angry over something small, when you look back there was no good reason for it.

别人生气我不气，气出病来无人替。
Other people get mad but I won't, Getting sick from anger there will be no one to attend to me.

我若气死谁如意，况且伤神又费力。
If I die from anger no one is fortunate, Besides it hurts the spirit and takes up a lot of energy

邻居亲朋不要比，儿孙琐事由他去。
Neighbors Relatives and Friends don't need to Compare,
Sons and Grandsons let them lead their lives.

吃苦享乐在一起，神仙羡慕好伴侣。
Through bitterness and joy together, the gods will admire such good mates.

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兄弟相争一片墙
brothers argue over a piece of wall

让他三尺又何妨
what's the big deal if you give in 3 feet?

万里长城今犹在
the great wall still exists today

不见当年秦始皇
but emperor qin* no longer exists

*the great wall was created under qin shi huang/emperor qin's rule

It is basically saying that it's foolish to argue with someone over material things b/c the material things last but then the people who once owned it pass on anyway, the emperor doesn't own the great wall today so it's not worth it to get into a conflict over something miniscule, especially if it is a family/close friend.

Comparative Chinese Diasporas in America and South Africa

(I copy-pasted parts of this entry from my Fulbright application project proposal, where I'm hoping to receive a scholarship to research: Chinese Diaspora in South Africa--Understanding Cultural Identity through Oral History... I probably won't find out until around May.)

China's interest in the African continent is growing rapidly, which can be seen the growing number of Chinese immigrants and increasing economic developments with Africa. This phenomenon is proof that a new cultural identity is developing, and South Africa also has the largest documented number of overseas Chinese in Africa. Although South Africa calls itself "the Rainbow Nation", the sensitive race relation issues that are discussed mostly deal with the black and white. For a Chinese person in a "black and white" world, where does "yellow" fit in?

Since 2006 the Chinese Association of South Africa has been pushing to hold the government accountable for the wrongs against the Chinese people, and in June 2008 they were successful. My project will research how the June 2008 ruling of the Chinese reclassification to “Black” affects cultural identity for Chinese-South Africans. During apartheid, Taiwanese and Japanese citizens in South Africa benefited from “Honorary White” status due to the government’s mutual economic cooperation, however, most mainland Chinese citizens still suffered under apartheid. After apartheid ended, Chinese were associated with the other Asians in South Africa, and did not receive any benefits of affirmative action, despite their mistreatment under apartheid.

There seem to be a lot of parallels between Chinese American and Chinese African culture, particularly with slavery and apartheid putting black and white race relations at the forefront of both cultures. One difference I do see is that Chinese Americans tend to be middle class, and Chinese South Africans suffered under apartheid.

I am curious about the perspective of Chinese-South Africans by talking with them about issues such as: If someone were to ask you “What are you?” how would you describe yourself? How do you think others would describe you? Do you identify with nationality over ethnicity? Do you feel Nelson Mandela represented your voices? Are the American ideas of "forgotten minority" and "glass ceiling" also reflected in South Africa? Since Chinese were labeled as 'blacks' and Taiwanese, Japanese, and Koreans as 'honorary white', do you feel more camaraderie with blacks over Asians, or is it like the U.S. where the Asian diasporas tend to be more non-exclusionary?*** I would also interview non-Chinese-Asian-South Africans, Black-South Africans, and Caucasian-South Africans about their perspective on this issue. For example, I would like to understand how blacks and whites view Chinese and non-Chinese South Africans by asking questions such as: Did you have a hard time distinguishing which Asians were “Honorary Whites” or “Coloreds” during apartheid?

Many of these questions are ones that I've struggle to answer for myself in my own search to understand my cultural identity. I don't have the answers to all these questions, but I hope to be able to find them if I get the scholarship!

***I realize this postion is arguable and I will be addressing this issue in a later post.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Here are some links to check out if you are interested in the issue

From BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7461099.stm

From the WSJ China Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/06/19/in-south-africa-chinese-is-the-new-black/

Colour, Confusion and Concessions

By Melanie Yap, Dianne Leong Man

http://books.google.com/books?id=_ca9nqe6PRoC&dq=chinese+organizations+in+south+africa&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
Not on the aforementioned contemporary topic but "intention of this work is to fill a gap in available histories by producing the first comprehensive record of the Chinese in South Africa from the earliest times to the present."

Power & People -- Colours (Al Jazeera English)
Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-_B8nE2cmA
Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1J7XedsYCg&feature=related

Introduction

About Me and Why I Created the Centre

I'm Chinese and Taiwanese by ethnicity, and American by nationality, but I (at time of entry) will be living in Mexico. My philosophy in life is to "know where you're from, and know where you're going." I was fortunate to grow up in a family that placed importance on the former, and I was exposed to various aspects of Chinese and Taiwanese culture, politics, history, literature, and media at a young age. Due to the individual Asian Diasporas being close-knit in the community I grew up in, and the Taiwanese fascination with Japanese and Korean popular culture, I also was also exposed to a lot about Northeast Asia.

However, as I grew older, due to many internal conflicts with cultural identity, I developed internal racism for a period in my life where I rejected "where I was from". I felt I could not belong neither in American nor any Asian culture, nor Asian-American culture and I was resentful of what I felt was rejection what should have been "my people". I picked the culture most foreign, hence most fascinating to me, and began to spend more time trying to understand that, because at least in such a foreign culture, I knew I wasn't supposed to belong.

Fast forward a few years, and now I've resolved my cultural identity issues. My interest for different cultures and languages continues to grow... though this blog will only focus and Asian and African studies, inspired by the growing relations between China and the African continent... though not limited to such topics.

I eventually want to be a professor of dramaturgy, focusing on Comparative Asian and African Performance Studies. I'm interested in performance art for public service, oral history for performance, and comparative dramatic literature research and work. To understand performance art of a culture, especially the themes reappear in dramatic literature, one must also understand the history, sociology, and politics of a culture, so this blog will encompass multiple disciplines.

I created this blog because when I was in a International Relations master's programme at Tsinghua University I wasn't allowed to research politically sensitive topics (such as China's financial and arms aide to rebel groups (Mugabe in Zimbabwe) and corrput governments (Sudan) so I left the programme, but I still want to do independent research for fun. Also, I just want a one-stop website for others who may be interested in similar topics like me.

So, that is a bit about who I am, and you'll learn from my blog entries more about some of my interests!