Identity Crisis

I had discussed this issue with my friends in the emails previously and decide to bring it up again, after an in-depth conversation with my good friends here. It has been an interesting "phenomenon" that I noticed since my arrival here.

Case No 1: A young sweet-looking Chinese colleague from ED, with a pair of dark-rimmed spectacles and pony-tailed hair, speaking immaculate Aussie accent. I asked her one day where she was from. "Germany" was her answer. I refrained from probing further about her ancestry. When I learnt that she holidayed in Vietnam with her Aussie boyfriend (whom she proudly proclaimed to any soul she met) for 3 weeks, I enquired casually if her parents originated there. She gave a quick "no" before scurrying off. I discovered later that she was an Indonesian-Chinese.

Case No 2: I was pleasantly surprised when I met my first Chinese colleague when I started my job here who happened to be a Singaporean. He was an orthopaedic registrar and his father was the HOD of Surgery in a hospital in Singapore. When he was quizzed about his background by a South African patient, he rambled on in his strongly acquired local accent about his medical education at Zimbabwe and his 6 years' job experience at Queensland. Not a mention on his country of origin. I was nevertheless put off by his arrogance during our subsequent encounters at work.

Case No 3: This has got to be the most absurd experience I have ever had. He was a nice friendly and approachable chap working in my department, born in Malaysia and looked distinctly Indian, spewing the affable familiar Singaporean/Malaysian English. His dad was an orthopaedic surgeon in KL and his ITALIAN mum a paediatrician currently in Malaysia as well. Although I was surprised by the lack of Eurasian feature in his looks, I never for once doubted his parentage or challenged his Italian-speaking capability (I wouldn't know if it was Italian after all). Just recently, I discovered by chance from a trusted source that his mother was a PURE Indian who studied in her continent and had been there all her life before marrying a Malaysian. I am still stunned until this very moment. Why would anyone lie about his parentage? Was it a serious inferiority complex or the notion that the whites are always more superior still deeply enprinted? I did not confront him and still consider him my good friend because he had lent his support and helping hand when I most needed it in this foreign land. But I would have doubted anyone subsequently who would tell me about his/her parentage and bearing distinctly different appearances.

Interesting anecdotes which shocked even my 2 Malaysian-Chinese friends who hailed from Melbourne. One of them jokingly commented that if we think hard enough to be what we want, for example Italian, we would eventually turn into one (hahaha). On a serious note, they did notice similar traits among the Australian-born and British-born Chinese who were inculcated traditional Asian values at home but at the same time exposed to the open-minded Western culture in school. It may be difficult for them to attain a fixed identity given their varied exposures and hence the confusion that arises. Similarly, for my friends who were born in Malaysia, educated or migrated to Singapore with their families, and later uprooted themselves to work in Australia, they found it tiring sometimes telling their whole nomadic life stories to strangers or acquaintances who would question their origins. I began to appreciate their predicaments after their explanations. At the end of the day, we were joking about our "Kan-tang" status (Malay for potatoes, yellow-skinned on the outside but white inside, representing the western-educated Asians).

My Indian colleague who was applying for an Australian PRship here put it very simply: He would defend India and call himself an Indian as long as he remains its citizen, but once he holds the Australian passport, he would be an Australian citizen despite his ancestry and would be justified to address himself as an Aussie. Very apt and succinct.