Journey to the past: why overseas Chinese are finally embracing their roots
Chinese immigrants once viewed the past as a black box – sealed shut to blend in abroad. But as new generations come of age, many are turning to genealogical services to search for identities that are fading with time
While he was growing up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Dennis Yeung was unaware of the differences between himself and the other boys. Sure, he was known as “Ching”, but even here he may have caught a break. One white classmate was known as “Buddha” because he was fat. Another kid was “Fungus” owing to wad of peach fuzz on his face.
Now, 68, the jovial retired mechanical engineer recalls that it wasn’t until he started shaving that the difference between he and the majority of Australians hit home. “You stand there in front of the mirror and lather up every morning, day in and day out, and eventually it hits you,” Yeung says. “This face in the mirror looking back at you is a bit alien.”
As China lurches forward, its 50 million strong diaspora, scattered to the far corners of the world during far less prosperous times, are increasingly looking backwards to the land of their forebears in a search for their roots.
In generations past, overseas Chinese traditionally viewed the past as a black box – sealed shut by nervous parents eager for family members to keep their heads down in a foreign world that is often majority white.
“You have to adapt or die,” says Raymond Chong, 62, of Sugar Land, Texas, recalling his childhood.