back in touch

Kung Hei Fat Choi!!

A day late, I know.  But better late than never.

In case you didn't know, I am of Chinese heritage.  Both of my parents are Chinese, as are my grandparents, and so forth and so forth.  I grew up in beautiful British Columbia as a second generation Canadian with my younger brother.  My parents only spoke English and adopted many Canadian values and traditions.  Now that I am older,  I wonder why my Chinese heritage was not celebrated while I was growing up.

How I wish I could speak Chinese now (Cantonese or Mandarin!).  It's not too late but now it's one of those things that have been put on the back burner.  It's also sad as I can't communicate with my grandma, who only speaks Chinese.  She's 93.

I came home yesterday to an excited 10 (almost 11) year old wondering if we were going out for dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year.  It seems like schools and the general public are really getting into the spirit of celebrating our New Year!  I hope it doesn't get too commercialized.

Anyways, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see the excitement and determination coming from Miss S about the importance of celebrating Chinese New Year.  So off we went, to a local Chinese restaurant about 10 minutes from our house.  After all, it was a school night!

We had a wonderful dinner and even bumped into an old friend of my husband's.  He was dining solo so we invited him over to our table.  The more the merrier!

It's great to see that Miss S is embracing her "adopted" heritage (she is half Jamaican/half Russian).  Lil J was also busy embracing his heritage by downing all-you-can-drink Chinese tea!  Believe it or not, he actually went to bed right when we got home!  Perfect child, I tell you.

So here I am, scrambling to help Lil J be in touch with his heritage, both Chinese and Jamaican.  I want to put him in Chinese school but I worry that he will not be able to keep up his spoken Chinese as no one speaks it at home.  Maybe I better get my butt into Chinese school!  I also need to get him a Chinese outfit for this weekend from Chinatown.  How cute would that be?!

What do you do to keep your child in touch with their heritage?

- swank|mama