Many years ago when I was living abroad. One night my friend had an emergency and I took her to the hospital. Instead of checking the patient’s broken finger, the doctor turned to me and said, “So Chinese people are tall now? ”  I sensed the tone and couldn’t just ignore, I knew my mother would say: ” be the bigger person and let it go ” but I replied: ” Well doctor, aren’t there tall and short people everywhere? We are all different. ” He continued:” I just didn’t know they are producing tall people in China too. ”  I was this close to snap but then he turned to my friend and actually started his duty as a doctor.

Funny enough, It was my friend’s middle finger that got caught by the door and during the whole check-up, she was giving him the finger that I would give.

 

I’m sure he meant no harm, but it occurred to me just how people still have that stereotype of China?

You would be amazed how many times I heard people say, “ But you are not a typical Chinese, you can’t represent the majority.”

But darling, if I am an authentic Chinese, what I do, what I say should represent my generation, my people. You can’t ignore me because I don’t fit in that image in your head. What you should do, is maybe get your facts right and more importantly, up to date, and embrace who we really are, because like it or not, We are coming.

At least I am. At full force.

In the hope of helping people to understand better my country and my people, people who actually live in this century, I created this culture category, one post at a time, use my own voice, to present my generation to the rest of the world so that next time when you think of me, you won’t have that picture of a girl, dressing in Qipao and trying to eat pizza with her chopsticks anymore.

Please D&G, we all use hands.

Photo by my favorite Paul Claussen shot in an old historical building on East Beijing Rd, Shanghai, China.

* Editor’s note: this location is no longer available to the public, the building is under construction.