266 replies to this topic

[fsgien]

I have been neither white nor black,
fortunately taught to speak Cantonese since young,
enjoyed family rites and traditions within an Overseas Chinese community,
some formal lessons at an elementary Wah Kiew School
before the dilution process.
Migrated to North America, on the eastern time zone to be near europe.

Happy to be ethnically and culturally rooted as a
華 裔 waa4 jeoi6 ~ hua2 yi4 / 華 僑 waa4 kiu4 ~ hua2 qiao2

Edited by General_Zhaoyun, 06 June 2009 - 11:00 AM.
Correct spelling

[bullboy168]

I am Chinese(PRC).....

In my eyes,content at least two of the below,I will consider you are Chinese:

1.you have the Chinese brood,and you can say one of the Chinese language(putonghua,yueyu etc.)

2.you can read Chinese,at least the basic words.(some old men can speak but can not write,I understand,but the basic word I think they should can read)

3.you like Chinese people,and hope our country to be stronger,but not weaker or separate.

even if you content just1&2,but not 3,that's ok.each country has bad man,but I can't say you are not Chinese.

if you just content 2&3,but not 1,that's ok too,you will become read Chinese eventually,just the timing.I will consider you are chinese.

That's my opinion.....

Edited by General_Zhaoyun, 23 July 2009 - 07:27 AM.
Correct spelling

[Kimchee]

What does it mean to be Chinese?



To blossom greatly and endure forever.






Overall, we're just people like anyone else.

The blossoming part I got from reading from a essay about overseas Chinese online. A lot of different groups of people have some type of analogy or national/cultural characteristics to describe themsleves. That essay was written how the Chinese people are like one big diverse garden, and every individual is a seed with very strong roots. These seeds can survive anything and can bloom anywhere, by themelves or with others. They can produce very beautiful flowers, fragrances, fruits, anything. They can provide shade, oxygen or shelter. Some have thorns and poisons, others are sweet and nourishing with syrups and nutrition. Some can be huge trees, others tiny plantae microbes. All can be great however they choose to be. All in all, there's no simple word or phrase to describe this garden, it's still blooming full of energy and insight. It can beautify themselves and others in many ways.
The other groups can claim this and that, but the most important thing for the Chinese mind is to make the most out of their lives on Earth and be all that they can be. Put the verb "being" in the word human being, little room for idleness. Full of potential.



Sounds nice? or too over-loafing?

This is beautiful... how poetic and well-said. Because the Chinese people and culture have impacted the world in so many ways throughout history... it's perfect to think of China as a garden... touching everyone everywhere with tendrils and vines, fragrance and fruit... or ideas and culture blowing in the wind like Dandelion seeds.

Good job, tung2sai.

 dandelion_seed_blowing_away.jpg   27.88K   1 downloads

Kimchee

[moobie]

If your blood is any of the various Chinese groups that belong in any area of China I'd say that's enough as long as you aren't a traitor.

[WangGeon]

If your blood is any of the various Chinese groups that belong in any area of China I'd say that's enough as long as you aren't a traitor.

Define "traitor." Do you mean "traitor" as in one who rejects the validity of the PRC's system or do you mean "traitor" as in one who rejects his/her heritage?

"Chineseness" need not be restricted or limited to national or political identifications.

Edited by WangGeon, 29 August 2009 - 05:29 PM.

[moobie]

I would define traitor as someone who deliberately harms the survival and interests of Chinese and or other East Asian peoples

Edited by moobie, 29 August 2009 - 08:28 PM.

[Gan]

To be a part of a very big unique family among the many families on Earth.

[animerlot]

Chinese is like a family, the culture, bloodline, ethnic, language, your skin color, your face all do not matter, if you are the member of the family.

This family has 5000 years history and stories, in the long period, some new members joined like the daughter-in-law(in Chinese it should be daughter-in-tradition), some members moved to another country like the daughter married and moved out, but she's still the member of the family and her sons,daughters, sons of sons are still the member of the family. Some members love this family, some maybe hate her, but they are all the members.

When this family is prosperous, they love her.
When her becomes downfall, some leave her, some hate her, some bespatter her, they are unfilial members, but the real ones do their best to make her prosperous again, they are really sons of the family.

China is the oldest family in the world.

China is big family combined lots of little families, all they have one name: Chinese.

[brightness]

There is no meaning other than psychological. The human mind likes to forge concrete identities and stereotypes that does not actually exist. National identity is just one of them.

I tend to agree with that point of view too. It's a matter of identification and self-identification. On top of that, there's the bureacratic regulations for the sake of artificial discriminations.

The concept of "中国" in the modern nation-state sense only came about during late Qing, when Manchu-Qing-China was subject to western domination. "Chinese" was a handy term for Westerners to describe all the local natives (to be looked down upon), and in turn to the "Chinese" it became a shared identity for asserting what at the root was racial equality vis Europeans. Many of the lines drawn between "Chinese" vis "non-Chinese" were quite arbitrary; e.g. Korean, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Tibetan, etc.. In many instances, it was simply real-politik.

Before the 19th century, "China" was a geographic concept, not a nation-state concept per se, just like "Europe," "Indies," "Arabia," etc. Chinese saw the world as "all under heaven" under the (nominal) rule of the Son of Heaven, so as to give the world a sense of order. Periods of fragmentation was just part of the process of sorting out who was the real "Son of Heaven" and had the "Mandate of Heaven." The "Son of Heaven" could well be a non-Han; despite being thoroughly disgusted by Mongol rule, Chinese seemed to have reconciled themselves to rule by the Manchus. So ethnicity was not a huge issue in terms of belonging to the society (but of course a huge issue in terms of "ranking" within Chinese society at the time). It would have been an interesting thought experiment if the British conflict with China did not take place during a liberal free market period in British politics like it historically did in the early to mid-19th century, but half a century later in the late Victorian Imperial age, with some sinologists figuring out how the Chinese mind worked, and arrived in China with heavy firepower and proclaimed a quest to seize "Mandate of Heaven" from the Manchus. LOL. In a way, that's what the First Sino-Japanese War and Boxer War did . . . presenting Chinese with an alternative "Mandate of Heaven" not in a person but in terms of a set (or sets) of ideologies that were diametricly different from the ruling Manchus.

[animerlot]

I tend to agree with that point of view too. It's a matter of identification and self-identification. On top of that, there's the bureacratic regulations for the sake of artificial discriminations.

The concept of "中国" in the modern nation-state sense only came about during late Qing, when Manchu-Qing-China was subject to western domination. "Chinese" was a handy term for Westerners to describe all the local natives (to be looked down upon), and in turn to the "Chinese" it became a shared identity for asserting what at the root was racial equality vis Europeans. Many of the lines drawn between "Chinese" vis "non-Chinese" were quite arbitrary; e.g. Korean, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Tibetan, etc.. In many instances, it was simply real-politik.

Before the 19th century, "China" was a geographic concept, not a nation-state concept per se, just like "Europe," "Indies," "Arabia," etc. Chinese saw the world as "all under heaven" under the (nominal) rule of the Son of Heaven, so as to give the world a sense of order. Periods of fragmentation was just part of the process of sorting out who was the real "Son of Heaven" and had the "Mandate of Heaven." The "Son of Heaven" could well be a non-Han; despite being thoroughly disgusted by Mongol rule, Chinese seemed to have reconciled themselves to rule by the Manchus. So ethnicity was not a huge issue in terms of belonging to the society (but of course a huge issue in terms of "ranking" within Chinese society at the time). It would have been an interesting thought experiment if the British conflict with China did not take place during a liberal free market period in British politics like it historically did in the early to mid-19th century, but half a century later in the late Victorian Imperial age, with some sinologists figuring out how the Chinese mind worked, and arrived in China with heavy firepower and proclaimed a quest to seize "Mandate of Heaven" from the Manchus. LOL. In a way, that's what the First Sino-Japanese War and Boxer War did . . . presenting Chinese with an alternative "Mandate of Heaven" not in a person but in terms of a set (or sets) of ideologies that were diametricly different from the ruling Manchus.

So boring!

[brightness]

So boring!

Still beats the lies and propaganda put together for kids.

[KLdome]

For discussion, let's say my wife and I were from present day China, emigrated to a non-Chinese speaking region, raised our children to speak Chinese of some dialect and they can read basic texts. Now further down the path, one grandchild married a Chinese but children have no interest in Chinese language or culture, another female grandchild married a Japanese and educated their children in the local language and Japanese but taught them to read Chinese too. Finally a male grandchild married a non-Asian and their children carry our surname but barely look Asian, some putting effort into developing cultural and language skills, some not al all. None of us have any intention of ever living in China, and even traveling for a visit is financially unlikely.

Who's Chinese? As Great Ancestor, I love them all as my descendants and they are Chinese to me.

Edited by KLdome, 28 September 2011 - 10:48 AM.