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Being Chinese

Being Chinese
Being Chinese is an occasional column that contemplates and explores the cultural, existential and related aspects of Chinese experience, whether the writers are Chinese by birth, descent or osmosis.
Love messages are displayed on an electronic billboard in Tsim Sha Tsui on February 14, 2024. In cities like Hong Kong, those three little words are seldom spoken in Chinese. Photo: May Tse
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | Why don’t we say ‘I love you’ in Chinese? Let me count the reasons

Chinese speakers like me have been trained to understand the difference between ‘aiyah’ and ‘aiyaah’, and things left unsaid among loved ones.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | To know who we are, China must remain open to foreigners

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | My Hong Kong crash course in Chinese calculations of everything

Chinese culture

Being Chinese | The beauty of being a filial Chinese daughter

Despite the caregiving challenges, there’s a beauty in accepting filial piety is not a choice but a necessity: roles and responsibilities are clear.

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Amy Wu and her father, Dr Joseph Wu, attending the annual senior prom event organised by the New York Dutchess county government’s Office for the Ageing in October 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Evelyn Loo
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | Who’s Singaporean and stressing over Lunar New Year food abroad? Not me

Grappling with being the sole source of Singapore Chinese culture for my children, I have focused on transmitting it through food.

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Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | No stereotypes please, overseas Chinese students are a wonderful mix

By no stretch of any imagination can one reduce Chinese students in the UK to a uniform, faceless tribe, as my cohort once was.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | How my Malaysian Chinese education is paying off

Malaysian Chinese have paid a heavy price for Chinese-medium schools, but for my generation, that investment is reaping dividends.

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People visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on August 22. Photo: AFP
Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | I may not use my ‘beautiful’ Chinese name often, but I’m glad of the gift

My father was renamed when a Briton couldn’t make out his Chinese name. I’m grateful for mine, though I now use a name that confounds some.

Chinese culture

Being Chinese | English took me out of a Chinese factory, but not China out of me

I learned English as a bored young factory worker and began writing in it to avoid censorship. But my decision has come with pros and cons.

Chinese culture

Being Chinese | We’re Chinese and we fight to pay for dinner

Economic and societal shifts have forced me to reconsider the fight-to-pay ritual at multi-generation family gatherings.

At the end of a Chinese family meal, it is common to see the tug of war over who picks up the bill. Photo: Shutterstock
China’s soft power

Being Chinese | In US vs Chinese soft power, guess how children are voting?

As children around me get sucked into the rabbit hole of Disney, Marvel and Netflix, I wonder about the reach of Chinese culture.

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Children have a chat at Shanghai Disney Resort in 2020. Photo: Reuters
Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | From my Chinese Malaysian childhood, a lifelong reality check

A defining childhood moment came when I was warned my identity as a Chinese female would count as ‘two strikes’ against me.

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China society

Being Chinese | What’s come between China and It bags? Maybe it’s not just the economy

Chinese may be growing out of their obsession with high-end Western brands, like how I outgrew my fascination with ‘decadent Western’ jeans.

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Chinese culture

What does it mean to be Chinese? Views from SCMP Opinion

In the Being Chinese column, SCMP writers and contributors – whether they are Chinese by birth, descent or osmosis – explore the different aspects of Chinese identity and experience in personal reflections.

China society

Being Chinese | I am a Chinese mother. Hear me worry

Like Mencius’ mum, I want to give my son a better learning environment, including by moving house. Yet I also want him to be happy.

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Children play with spinning chairs at a shopping mall in Beijing on July 13. Photo: AP
Hong Kong society

Being Chinese | How I transcended my Hong Kong identity crisis

I felt neither British nor Chinese growing up in Hong Kong. Travelling the world and living in Beijing helped me find my bearings.

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China society

Being Chinese | Put a ring on it? Chinese women don’t need marriage any more

Women in China once believed marriage to be a necessary passage in life. Now they know they can choose to follow their desires.

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Hong Kong society

Being Chinese | Could Olympic-inspired Hong Kong dare to fail?

For Hong Kong youth who want to take an unconventional path in life, the bar for parental approval is set too high.

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Boys practice at a fencing school in Jordan, Hong Kong, on August 1. The success of Hong Kong fencers at the Olympics has boosted interest in the sport in the city. Photo: May Tse
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | Why must Chinese parents make children dread piano?

Music lessons are practically a rite of passage for Asian children but when forced, they can strip our kids of a lifelong enjoyment of music.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | How the world has changed for a Chinese-looking person

It is remarkable how assumptions and expectations of a Chinese-looking person have evolved, as China’s fortunes changed over decades.

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A Chinese tourist in traditional Thai dress poses for a photo at Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn in Bangkok in 2023. Photo: AP
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