I was curious in finding what material there is out there on Irish-Chinese in Ireland. And I was surprised to find that there are hardly anything at all. I have been mailng around to Doras and other online sites to see what I need to do to get my Irish born Chinese site in the directories. I have registered my site in google, so hopefully by next month I can see my site in there somewhere.
Now that we are in the 21st century, do overseas Chinese have enough influence from Chinese culture?
For young people who are still at home, and are lucky enough to have satellite to get the Chinese Channel, influence is not as big as curiosity to watch some programmes on the Channel. Tv dramas are just addicted, so leaving that aside, what else is there? For me, when I visit my parents in the weekends, I would watch the daily news, and maybe some gossip programmes. Younger viewers can watch cartoons in the morning, and there are many children's programmes (which actually is a bit cringey), but I noticed that my brothers are either playing console games, or watching children's programmes on BBC, Network2, Sky One etc... I think it is the difference of cultures. One big thing is family. If the whole family speaks in their native Chinese tongue (whether it is Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin etc) it brings the family together. For me, I feel proud to be able to speak in Cantonese, and go back to HK and talk to my relatives. It makes me want to know more about the Chinese culture such as superstition, history and the differences between living here and over there. I had a very good experience back in 1999, I went to my mom's village for a celebration (Da Jiu), it does not happen often. See piccies at http://www.hyper.150m.com/photo_pages/holiday/HK.htm It was fun and was very new to me. I just hope that other young people also feels the same way as I do. Proud to be Chinese.
Now you can use http://irishbornchinese.kaykays.com to get to the Irish Born Chinese page now.
My life long dream is to live and work in HK when I was really young. (I dreamt of that when I was in 6th class!) But as I grew older, I notice certain things that HK culture may not be my piece of cake...
I have wondered what it is like to live in HK, and work there of course. HK people are hard-working, that is true. HK people are also very, very materialistic (like any other cosmopolition city nowadays). I am materialistic as well since I have, as they say, some Chinese blood running through me, but I am from a different culture, and the extent of materialism is somehow different. Working in a city in HK can be harsh, they would judge you even more on how you would look, what you wear (and if you are a lass, what jewellary you have) and being very rude indeed. I was looking around for information on hiking in HK and I found this site where backpackers send in their 2 cents on what it is like staying over in HK by ranking some stuff like accomadation, friendliness, scenary etc... Rudeness is still number one. I suppose it is like other cities, where people walk fast and bump into you without apolagising. But one experience I would not forget while I was in a restaurant in Chinatown with my mom, my aunt and her so called friends (all originated from HK). They were trying to out-do each other in the clothes, handbags, jewellaries, son/daughter in University etc. It was hell for me. Meeting up with friends should just be chasing up on the goss (as they say in Dub, "Story, bud?", heh! Only joking). Maybe I have a wrong view of HK people, but this is what I experienced and I think I will only still love HK if I go there on holidays.
Apart from looking and talking like an oriental, there are still differences (before we even get to culturally). Yes, I look oriental, but because of my paler skin colour, I stick out in the crowd while I am in Hong Kong (not much different than me in a crowd in an Irish city :-) ) When I speak Cantonese, it's fluent enough, but I still get caught out in Hong Kong, though I must admit I do get complimented on my fluency in Cantonese (not an excuse, since I have been brought up speaking it).
Now to the culturally different part... From what I heard, usually a HK college student of a good time socially is getting together to a hike, camping or have a BBQ, while here... you got it, the pub, get hammered and to the nearest pub/club after (heh). I remember my cousin (who has studied here in Ireland for quite a number of years) wanted to go to a pub with her sister and auntie, but they do no quite grasp the concept of going to a place like a pub where it is very noisy and smokey (and have a few drunks :-) ), and not go to a cafe instead. There you go, some little differences between an IBC and a HK Chinese. Not all of them, but a small bit.
BANG! A humongous banger goes off somewhere in the Mad Max zone behind Hueston Station. Yup, Halloween is upon us again. To go along with this festive month (dodging fireworks), I may drop into Irish Film Centre to watch "The Eye". A Hong Kong-Thailand movie, part of a horror trilogy. Looks scary and good. Halloween, the night where all the creep spirits and bad things roam the earth in the full moon... In Hong Kong, the Chinese version is in August (Chinese Lunar calendar is 7th Month). The spirit day... I remember I was in Hong Kong during that period with my 3 brothers. One of my brothers has a very bad temper and my dad was thinkiing of bringing him to a temple to ask one of the Gods to look after him, and let him be her step-son. (not sure of the God's name), so nothing bad would happen to him, and hopefully his temper would be controlled. But that was not a good period and dad was afraid that a spirit might take advantage and become attached to my brother. It was spooky when dad was telling me about this, and this was back in 1997. And we burnt alot of paper money to our ancestors, very smokey it was as well. Well, at least the worst that can happen here is being egged and floured, and maybe singed from some kid throwing fireworks around, other then being dogged by a spirit for the rest of your life...
Getting people I know to join my forum and post stuff up is alot of work. But this is what I need to do to is to get more blogs up, and encourage people I know to put stuff up. You know, plump out my forums a bit before complete strangers visit my site. My options would be to suss out the IBCs in colleges (posters maybe), I have a few connections, ok, relations who are studying in college. Also put a notice up in the Asian Markets if they let it. I'll ask Uncle Pao and see...
Doh, just realised that auto-prune was making my articles disappear. Thought it was me going crazy thinking "Where did my topic go? I remember putting
Anyway, I find one thing looking oriental and being a lass really helps (though I did not believe it at the time) is that I can get past bouncers easier than others, and sometimes I was not even dressed to go out!
But it always makes me wonder about other orientals on a night out and what do they think when they see me. Do they ask the same questions I do in my head? Are you born in Ireland? Which college did you go to, I wonder? Do they or their family reside in Hong Kong? (I have an attachment to Hong Kong if you did not notice by now
That should end this blog article now. Till next time!