CULTURAL CURIOSITY
It isn't a secret that lately I have had a lot more free time without a full time role in AIESEC since wrapping up AIESEC Australia's July National Conference for 2006, well most OC duties anyway. This has lead me to start doing one of the things I used to love doing as a child: reading.
Now when I say reading I dont ofcourse mean lecture notes, AIESEC materials or textbooks, I mean books which I go out of my way to read the blurb on the back of an purchase with my hard earned cash!
Combine this with my two seperate travels to Taiwan and Philippines, and me absolutely falling in love with people from the Asian continent, I noticed a book one day entitled Cultural Curiosity: 13 Stories about the search for Chinese Roots by Josephine M. T. Khu. Amazed to find that the sticker price was a mere $1.95, I hesitated but purchased the book anyway.
Well well well, I couldn't put the thing down could I! I think it was such a good book I must have finished the book in record time. I was intrigued reading about the perspectives of 13 different people with Chinese heritage who, through one way or another, were desperate to get back to their homeland and find their roots. Not all the essay - ists from the book lived in China at all, but their parents had such a profound impact on their lives, each person was drawn back to China for one reason or another, and all they wanted was to learn and experience more and more of what they had missed through being bought up abroad in as diverse places as Inida to Australia, the USA and the UK.
This book was a fantastic insight for me into a culture which I am deeply fascinated in, as well as opening my eyes to a facet of my growing up that I do not think I will have to deal with: Searching for forgotten roots in a foreign country.
Does this make me feel lucky? Interesting question really. Am I lucky to be 'white' as far back as people can remember? The interesting thing for me here is that there is some NZ Maori in my blood, and perhaps if I find more out about my family's heritage, it may take me back to parts of New Zealand, where I never thought I would be.
Now when I say reading I dont ofcourse mean lecture notes, AIESEC materials or textbooks, I mean books which I go out of my way to read the blurb on the back of an purchase with my hard earned cash!
Combine this with my two seperate travels to Taiwan and Philippines, and me absolutely falling in love with people from the Asian continent, I noticed a book one day entitled Cultural Curiosity: 13 Stories about the search for Chinese Roots by Josephine M. T. Khu. Amazed to find that the sticker price was a mere $1.95, I hesitated but purchased the book anyway.
Well well well, I couldn't put the thing down could I! I think it was such a good book I must have finished the book in record time. I was intrigued reading about the perspectives of 13 different people with Chinese heritage who, through one way or another, were desperate to get back to their homeland and find their roots. Not all the essay - ists from the book lived in China at all, but their parents had such a profound impact on their lives, each person was drawn back to China for one reason or another, and all they wanted was to learn and experience more and more of what they had missed through being bought up abroad in as diverse places as Inida to Australia, the USA and the UK.
This book was a fantastic insight for me into a culture which I am deeply fascinated in, as well as opening my eyes to a facet of my growing up that I do not think I will have to deal with: Searching for forgotten roots in a foreign country.
Does this make me feel lucky? Interesting question really. Am I lucky to be 'white' as far back as people can remember? The interesting thing for me here is that there is some NZ Maori in my blood, and perhaps if I find more out about my family's heritage, it may take me back to parts of New Zealand, where I never thought I would be.
2 Comments:
haven't seen you around in ages. thought I would drop in and say that I am always reading your blog, keep up the postings, and keep me up to date in what's going on in your life.
cheers
W
8:37 AM
Yeh man I dont pay this thing enough attention, I will try and be more vigilant in the future, however I dunno if I can be as vigilant as you haha
Azz H
11:19 AM
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