Oh China

Now this is completely irrelevant to life in Cambodia. Or maybe it is relevant.

I finally learned to say the following

Kinyum chun cheat chien, bontai, kinyum sun cheat Canada.

Translation:

My ethnicity is Chinese, but my nationality is Canadian.

This helps out in situations where a general annoyance with the nation of China is conveyed. Be it human rights abuses against activists in its own country, discrimination against ethnic minorities or the taking advantage of smaller under-developed countries to its south, there is currently a general local and global dissatisfaction felt towards nouveau riche China. I suppose this post is quite timely with the synergy of the global response to China's national and international policies and the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics.

I say this without any particularly strong knowledge of or experience living in the alleged motherland. My parents are from Hong Kong, and they were raised during its 99 year lease from China to the Great Britain. My mother is both an anglo- and francophile and my father's linkages to HK remain solely with remaining family and friends; most of whom are really really old. I have a workable fluency in Cantonese. It's actually more like my French. In fact, I would have to say that my education in those two languages was limited at best, and ended at too young of an age. So with a number of ethno-cultural, political, familial and social factors, I identify as Canadian, rather than Chinese.

Some would find this a bit tragic. I'm not particularly fond of my ethnic roots at the moment due to its ties to a nation whose present day social, economic and political culture and political strategem do not align with my own. From March 19-20, I attended the UN Systems Workshop on Pandemic Preparedness in the Asia-Pacific Region*. In a presentation given by the World Health Organization representative from China, a Chinese-national, a short call was given to support China for the Olympics despite what we, the audience, had heard in news reports. In another presentation given by UNDP-China, the speaker, once again a Chinese-national, asked for what we, the workshop participants, felt were the biggest problems with China. A very large number of hands rose into the air quickly upon the request. Tibet! Food safety! Human rights! That blind activist! So clearly there's some dissatisfaction with China thus far.

So, I'm being a bit of a bully to the motherland at the moment. Over thousands of years, China was a pretty great kingdom. I really love its food. Noodles are pervasive around the world as a result of their birth in China. However, so are explosive weaponry. I think that Wu Shu is a really beautiful art form cum martial art and I'm sure the list would continue. Perhaps I shouldn't be too quick to dis-align myself from China.


My Cambodian, Chinese-Cambodian, and my Vietnamese-Laotian-Thai-Chinese-Cambodian colleagues and I.

Then again, I also reflect back on how many Chinese-Cambodians with long family histories in Cambodia identify themselves. Many identify as Cambodian. Khmer even. At a recent party that my colleague, Khay threw, I found out that one of my new colleagues, Somnang, that ethnically he was Chinese, but he identified as Khmer. It went beyond the fact that his family had been sent to the workfields during the reign and terror of the Khmer Rouge, or that he spoke only Khmer (as well as English and French). This was the same for Khay, and his wife Pharun, who both have Khmer names. In fact, Khay's family name was changed from Wong (which is Chinese) to Phiev (which is Khmer) during the terrible reign of the Khmer Rouge. As with me, identity is a feeling - the accumulation of a number of historical, familial, social and political factors that form one's ethnic and national identities.

I could really go on waxing poetic and confusion about China, Chinese culture, the Chinese in Cambodia, yada yada yada. However, only this remains: 1/5 of the world's population are ethnically Chinese. I'm sure that quite a bit of them have different definitions of their ethno-cultural identity.

HAPPY KHMER NEW YEAR!

* The Asia-Pacific Region is essentially all countries in Asia excluding the Middle-East.