Vietnamese/French | English

I feel very very British and when I’m in the UK, I really feel at home. Hong kong doesn’t feel like home anymore especially now that everything is changing and things are a bit up in the air with the whole democracy/government thing. But then when I’m in France with my family there and having cheese and wine, I feel very French. But then also when I’m in Asia and eating at a market stall, I feel very Asian, so I think for me it is very situational. I’ve never felt a sense of not belonging. For me, home and identity and grounding comes from being surrounded by people that you love or people that you care about. Its not really about being born in Hong Kong or being in the UK. When I first came to boarding school here, everyone saw me as Chinese which was weird because in Hong Kong everyone is mixed so it is not a big deal. I remember at school being known as the foreign student or the Chinese girl even though I have a really strong English accent and I am three-quarters European. Around 12/13 suddenly going from a class in Hong Kong where if you were purely English you were the odd one out to the other way round, it was weird. I look in the mirror now and know that aesthetically I am mixed race. I would say that it is more about your attitudes and your behavior and your perception of other people as well, rather than just the skin that you are born with.

Everyone's a little bit mixed race. I think people who are mixed race means that two different nationalities of two different cultures have come together and it is incredibly fortunate if you are born into that world because you can experience both sides. Not a lot of people can do that. Not a lot of people can call two different distinct places or foods or cultures or whatever, home. It’ is a massive blessing.