Belgian | Hong Kong Chinese
I identify as Eurasian, Catholic & straight. Mama is from Belgium and Papa is from Hong Kong. Both of my parents have such love and respect for the other’s family and culture that they seamlessly combined their different traditions. As kids, it just meant we got to eat really good food and double up on the festivities! We would celebrate everything from Chinese New Year to St. Nicholas on the 6th December which is when Belgian children traditionally get their Christmas presents. It was different from what all my schoolfriends were doing but it was us. I speak French, although the less I use it the more I lose it. I really wish I had listened to my parents when they tried to get us to attend Chinese school, but I hated it. I remember sitting in class distinctly feeling like I was not Chinese enough to be there. We never spoke Cantonese at home, so I was a fish out of water. It’s definitely a challenge when you can’t communicate with your extended family as much or as well as you want to. I probably connect most with Mama’s Belgian culture than Papa’s Chinese culture but only because it’s more similar to British culture. I also spent much more time in Belgium around my Belgian family than I ever did in Hong Kong around my Chinese family so I’m sure that played a part. It’s weird but when you grow up in a ‘third’ country, you have ties to your parent’s cultures of course, but I think your biggest connection is to the culture you grew up in. The only negative experience I’ve had from being mixed-race and growing up in neither Belgium or Hong Kong is a very tangible lack of having any extended family around. I definitely felt, and still feel, this gap in my life. So much so that I’ve always known that if and when I have children I would have to live near my family (sorry, future husband). Me and my sister Delphine Chui run our own organic/beauty lifestyle blog @ftoxins I wouldn’t want to be born again. I believe God put us here, exactly as we are, for such a time as this. We just have to figure out why and get on with our mission.
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