I spent a good half a year in Florida, Tampa in the latter part of 2004.
When I was there, I realised that I have a tendency to want to show my Chineseness even more than when I was in Singapore. Apart from cooking Asian/ Chinese Peranakan dishes (see below for a list of what i cooked), I also find myself hanging around with international colleagues from Asia quite naturally. And invariably, we would use a hotch-potch of Asian languages to converse in addition to English. It was interesting to note that the Americans seemed oblivious of our nationalities, and chosing to refer to us (regardless of whether we are Korean, Japanese, Chinese Singaporean, Mongolians, Thai, etc) as Asians (unless of course they visit our offices where all of us flew our respective country's flags). My theory for this was that as the minority, we tend to flock together as a natural survival instinct.
Was it a case of feeling threatened because we are a minority? or was it simply because we share almost simlar values? or a combination of both?Whatever the case, I was sure that I, being a part of a minority race while there, personally felt left out and to a certain extend threatened by the ang mos as it was an ang-mo majority environment.
I realised that when in Singapore, being of the majority race, I tend to overlook the feelings of my fellow-non-Chinese countryman. I would converse in Chinese and dialects at times with my peers without thinking twice of my non-Chinese friends' presence. I finally query myself - have I, on the many occasions back home, inadvertently made my non-Chinese friends felt left out? With this experience, I do now apologise unreservedly if I had made them felt so.Reflecting, I learnt from my stay in Florida was that I should be more sensitive to my non-Chinese friends. Racial harmony is perhaps something that we in Singapore have taken for granted.
(Hmmm, what did I cook while I was in Florida... Let's see - they include bak kut teh, pork ribs kiam chye, bak chang, nonya kueh salat, yong chow fried rice, nonya chap chye, koh-leh chye png, orh png, chut-bee png, oyster sauce broccoli, mee siam, tau you bak, etc etc, etc.)
When I was there, I realised that I have a tendency to want to show my Chineseness even more than when I was in Singapore. Apart from cooking Asian/ Chinese Peranakan dishes (see below for a list of what i cooked), I also find myself hanging around with international colleagues from Asia quite naturally. And invariably, we would use a hotch-potch of Asian languages to converse in addition to English. It was interesting to note that the Americans seemed oblivious of our nationalities, and chosing to refer to us (regardless of whether we are Korean, Japanese, Chinese Singaporean, Mongolians, Thai, etc) as Asians (unless of course they visit our offices where all of us flew our respective country's flags). My theory for this was that as the minority, we tend to flock together as a natural survival instinct.
Was it a case of feeling threatened because we are a minority? or was it simply because we share almost simlar values? or a combination of both?Whatever the case, I was sure that I, being a part of a minority race while there, personally felt left out and to a certain extend threatened by the ang mos as it was an ang-mo majority environment.
I realised that when in Singapore, being of the majority race, I tend to overlook the feelings of my fellow-non-Chinese countryman. I would converse in Chinese and dialects at times with my peers without thinking twice of my non-Chinese friends' presence. I finally query myself - have I, on the many occasions back home, inadvertently made my non-Chinese friends felt left out? With this experience, I do now apologise unreservedly if I had made them felt so.Reflecting, I learnt from my stay in Florida was that I should be more sensitive to my non-Chinese friends. Racial harmony is perhaps something that we in Singapore have taken for granted.
(Hmmm, what did I cook while I was in Florida... Let's see - they include bak kut teh, pork ribs kiam chye, bak chang, nonya kueh salat, yong chow fried rice, nonya chap chye, koh-leh chye png, orh png, chut-bee png, oyster sauce broccoli, mee siam, tau you bak, etc etc, etc.)
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