the UGLY Chinese Canadian

For all my dear *new* immigrant friends…

What’s all this talk about Canada being a tolerant country? You must think it has always been like this, huh?

What a nice swell nation our cute little Canada is, eh?

Just remember our history. Read about our struggles and our triumphs.

So you just got off the boat, and now you’re a Canadian.

Ain’t it wonderful to bask it our great “Multi-cultural” society? Ain’t it neat to yap in Chinese or some other language? Ain’t it just dandy that we’ve got all these clowns in their diversity industries and multi-cultural rackets just sucking up to you?

Well, Wake up.

.
Open your squints.

Don’t take your acceptance for granted. Just because a few champagne socialists spends our tax dollars to celebrate a few ethnic photo ops, don’t think that you’re going to get away with being insular.

What you happy Pollyanas don’t realize is that previous generations of Canadians fought and built this country for you and for your fruit of your loins.

Respect that.

Yes, our Canada is not as whacked out like some other racist places on our planet – where a surname could forever place you under someone else’s foot. No, Canada is not like that, but we do have our share of rednecks and racists. Some of them disguising themselves as “Human Rights Activists”.

Here’s what we found on the Net in the few short days after the terrible human tragedy that is unfolding in Sichuan province … only a few short days after the 7.9 richter scale earthquake.

Racism Toward China, Sichuan EarthQuake

From the BCTV website:

Mike
The Chinese Government has plenty of resources to help their own people. What happened was a terrible tragedy, but there are many other countries that would benefit more from our aid.

---

Ken Lawson
No aid for China period from Canadians, if Chinese Canadians send it must be tax. Too much money is beening funnelled out of Canada to support programs in China.

Burma and Tibet must looked after first, China can help itself period.

and check out the trail of comments on CTV:

Steve in Aylmer
Where does it say in this report that China is looking for your financial help?

They don’t need our brain-power, they don’t our money, they don’t need anything from Canada. Seriously, does it hurt your ego that they’re not calling for our assistance.

What you do in a situation like this is act with some class, offer a hand even if they don’t ask.

If they refuse, offer prayers and compassion- its free.

Brian
why doesn’t the Chinese government re-allocate the funds it uses to oppress the Tibetan people? If we aid China with this disaster, while China continues to pour resources into murdering and oppressing the people of Tibet, aren’t we in effect oppressing and murdering the people of Tibet? I pray for the families affected that their government will show compassion and take care of all people.

Thankfully, the comments are balanced with real Canadians who can see through all of this, demonstrating to the World that there are indeed, decent and compassionate Canadians:

Magician
How many of those “human rights” activists, who were all in an uproar recently,
portraying themselves as the true guardians of Chinese people’s human rights, where are they now?
Have these groups done anything substantive to help the Chinese people in this time of need?
All the protesters in London , Paris during the Olympic torch relay, shouting slogans about human rights, have each of them done anything to help the Chinese people now?
Why do I sense the answer is rather depressing?
The same people who say we shouldn’t give a cent in aid would be the first to harp about human rights and their supposed “care” and support for people’s rights.

And there are other decent Canadians, such as this one “Love Me Tender“.

Thankfully not all Canadian blogs are as crass and as rude as mine, the UGLY Chinese Canadian. Not everyone can stomach this blog… so a lot of decent people would never glance these rants.

So what is the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s point in dissing some of you *newer* Canadians?

Simple.

Just be more of a participant here in Canada. Earning your citizenship means you have to share in our history, learn about our warts and work hard to support good leadership. Understand why rednecks feel the way they do, and prove them otherwise.

Our earlier generation of Chinese Canadians had struggled hard to earn what we have here today. So, don’t allow opportunistic Chinese-Canadians (newbie and banana types) to erode this credibility …and give reasons for rednecks to thrive.

Just one parting shot from me:

Just because “you” may dislike a current government, should not mean you should also hate it’s people. No one wants to be born impoverished, or to have a crappy government, or to suffer a calamity.

It’s not Karma … Karma does not inflict pain and suffering on the innocent.

What separates Canadians and a majority of good people on our planet is the ability to empathize and to show compassion to another human being.

How many dollars or things does one really need anyways?

The people affected by this earthquake needs our help… We live in a decent country, I can always work and earn some cash. It’s only money … and that’s all I can give to help for now.

I hope you feel the same way too.

Ways to donate:

Canadian Red Cross

World Vision Canada

Canadian Medical Assistance Teams

Vancouver’s Chinese community has been quick to rally to the plight of survivors to yesterday’s earthquake in southwestern China.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian received some early first hand communications from friends presently visiting China, and everyone is hoping that they can help in the relief effort.

On the flip side, we also see some of the ugliness of our human species.

What is disturbing is some of the garbage being disseminated out on the web – diatribes like, ” they deserve it …it’s Karma, because China this, therefore China that …” or, “it’s the mandate of Heaven, like in 1976…” “… we’ve already given China lots of financial aid for business blah blah blah…”

For these insecure little wankers, there really isn’t much decent folks can do to change these myopic perceptions.

Quick to the call for help, was the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s mom.

On the day after Canada’s Mother’s day, good ol’ mom, along with her nattering old granny pals started organizing efforts to assist in the relief effort …this on top of their efforts on the other Asian crises – the devastating Burmese cyclone and the ice storms that had ravaged China.

I will be helping mom out on her efforts – a bevy of old women, who in Vancouver has done some amazing humanitarian work. The UGLY Chinese Canadian is proud of his mom, a woman, who during the mid-1970’s demonstrated to Vancouver’s community that a “Chinese” person was capable of showing that race and ethnicity should never intrude on doing acts of kindness.

I remember well, Mom’s efforts in supporting and rallying the Chinese Canadian community to assist in the relief efforts for the Italian earthquake, then again in Northern China earthquake of 1976.

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There will be a lot of pleas for monetary donation and from those hoping to tug at heart strings. Please be vigilant and be aware that there will be creeps soliciting funds for enriching their own pocketbooks.

Check the credibility and the legitimacy of canvassers, and who they actually represent.

It is best to donate directly to the organizations through their real websites, and not through some intermediary.

Canada’s Fairchild media is currently organizing a donation campaign with the HSBC bank, in addition, the Chinese Benevolent Association in Vancouver meets today to discuss aid plans to help the victims of the earthquake.

The Canadian Red Cross also has a direct donation link through their Paypaq site.

From the Shanghaiist, here are some info for support of relief efforts currently underway in China

You can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan.

They have also published an emergency relief hotline, along with bank account information to receive donations to assist their cause:

Account name: Red Cross Society of China
开户单位：中国红十字会总会

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below:
人民币开户行: 中国工商银行 北京分行东四南支行
人民币账号: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below:
外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行
外币账号: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610) 65139999
Online donations: Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn
Click the tab for online donations.

It’s now down to the wire.

Political Party membership sign-ups for the nomination battles that will see who will lead each respective party into Vancouver’s Fall municipal election.

With approximately 40% of the population in the City proper, the Chinese Canadian community is said to be the king maker for our City’s next Mayor. The Mayor who will be presiding over the 2010 Olympic thing.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian has been in touch with most of the candidates, and is watching this race with interest.

In reality, the only candidates who show up on the radar screen in the Chinese Canadian community are:
Al DeGenova (Vision Vancouver), Raymond Louie (Vision Vancouver), Sam Sullivan (NPA) and Peter Ladner (NPA). Vision Vancouver candidate, Gregor Robertson has retained a paid Chinese phone bank to solicit support. Truthfully, we don’t think Robertson will garner any significant Chinese community support. UGLY has received almost a dozen calls from his campaign … and it’s still ‘NO’.

A few of these hopefuls have the Chinese language – or shows a relationship to the Chinese Canadian community, on their website.

Peter Ladner’s has the most comprehensive Chinese webpage: http://www.peterladner.ca/why_peter_chinese.php

Raymond Louie’s has five different languages, including, Chinese, Tagalog (Philipino), Italian, Spanish and Punjabi: http://raymondlouie.ca/languages/zh/

Al DeGenova’s website has a page devoted to his strong connection to Chinatown: http://www.allandegenova.com/thingsAboutAl4.aspx

So here’s a thought:

Does presenting web information in Chinese help your efforts? Remember, Vancouver’s Chinese is not the monolithic united community most pundits paint it to be.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian has an interesting thought for Mayoral and other prospective political wannabes. And that thought is: which of the so-called “groups” within the monolithic Chinese Canadian community would access (and read) your Chinese language Web bumph? The UGLY Chinese Canadian will offer an insight into this fractured community – but will save it for a future Blog Post.

What can be said, as documented on exit polls – is that some Politicians have successfully figured out how to crack this community access. The key is in who you have on your “Chinese” media/ outreach team… and to which Chinese “group” this person has the network reach.

Unfortunately, most candidates who try to tap into the Chinese Canadian community, grab the first Chinese face who happens to claim expertise (and they all do). Often leading to disappointment.

Again, we will save this thought for a future Blog post (in Part II: how to reach into Vancouver’s Chinese community).

So what are some of the issues that Vancouver’s Chinese community slag about?

We hear the usual fluff issues – drug and crime, downtown eastside bums, honesty, housing, transportation, integrity… blah blah blah. Really, most Vancouver citizens have heard all of this before. If any of these candidates are interested on the real trigger hair issues for some in the local Chinese Canadian community, here’s a few to consider:

1. The proposed nearby Waterfront Soccer Stadium. A real stupid location according to many in Chinatown. Even local giants like Architects Arthur Erikson and Bing Thom says it’s foolish. Sullivan is on record as supporting this stadium location.
2. Survival of the old heritage clan organizations. Like D.O.A. says, “Talk – Action = Zero”
3. The Chinatown Pagoda. The unwillingness of past councils to accommodate this feature attraction (due to accessibility issues) still have some proponents quite rankled.
4. of which, point #3, leads straight into: “What’s in it for me?” And for those trying to make a statement, had better have an answer to: “what are your thoughts on the Life and Death of Chinatown?”
5. and then there is that real scary query: Tibet.

Vision has two strong candidates in the eyes of Vancouver’s Chinese community – local born son, Raymond Louie, and the affable Al DeGenova. Either one of these fellows running against Sam Sullivan, will easily take away a chunk of the “Chinese” vote.

And should Peter Ladner decide to run as an Independant,

Ladner will split the “Right” - as he is a very popular and a highly respected businessman and City Councilor.

This time, it will not be a cakewalk for incumbent Mayor Sullivan, current leader of the right of center NPA civic party.

So if all the cards fall in place with Ladner running as an independent, and with either Louie or DeGenova running… Sullivan may just as well kiss the Mayor’s chair Zai Jian 再見 (hasta la vista, baby).

—

Last week, the Georgia Straight’s Carlito Pablo prepared the following article:

Chinese vote up for grabs in mayoral election

Carolyn Tam is a leukemia patient in desperate need to find a matching stem cell donor.

To help, please register as a bone marrow donor with the Canadian Blood Services at www.onematch.ca and spread the message to get more people to register. The donation procedure is non-surgical.

Visit www.SaveCarolyn.com for more information about Carolyn.

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traditionally, this has been
difficult in the Chinese community

The Chinese community has been apprehensive in efforts that may appear to remove or involve parts of the human body. But recently, there is an awareness of the importance of this sort of appeal.

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In 1990, Canadians saw the ground swelling of awareness and support for young Elizabeth Lue, and her appeal for help (see LINK to “Elizabeth Lue’s Legacy“), and the awareness campaign place forward by Vancouver’s Chinese Renal Association.

And last year, we saw the the appeal for James Erlandson (see Link to “Bone Marrow Urgently Sought”). We are happy to inform that James’ leukemia has gone into remission.

Maybe this is one of the best things to have come out of blogs and this whole cybernetworking thing. The ability to spread these messages virally.

Please share this appeal for Carolyn and others in her situation.

We wish Carolyn success in locating a compatible match soon.

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CANADIAN STEM CELL DONATION PROCEDURE

WHERE?

Your local Canadian Blood Services branch or www.onematch.ca

WHAT IS REQUIRED TO REGISTER?

Between age 17 to 50 and of good health. Call or register on online and you will receive a Swab Kit with 4 Q-tips to collect your saliva samples to mail back to CBS. Once CBS receives the samples, you will be entered into the database - it is AS SIMPLE AS THAT

IF I AM A MATCH, WHAT IS THE DONATION PROCEDURE?

Before proceeding with a donation, you will be contacted by a registered nurse from OneMatch who will guide you through each step of the process. You will be required to complete a physical examination and routine medical tests. These tests may include a chest X-ray and electrocardiogram, as well as blood and urine analyses. They are intended to ensure that you are healthy and physically eligible to be a donor.

AND IF I RECEIVE A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH?

In most cases, the matching donor will be required to donate STEM CELLS through Stimulated Peripheral Blood Donation (AND NOT A BONE MARROW ASPIRATION):

Donor will receive injections of a drug called granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) every day for four to five days. The stem cells are then collected using a procedure called apheresis where your blood is drawn through a needle. The blood is then passed through a centrifuge where the stem cells are separated from the rest of your blood. The remaining blood is returned back into your body through another needle. This is a non-surgical procedure.

Under our “What Tibet Protest?”, a lively commentary/ discussion occurred, and we felt it worthy of becoming a full Blog post:

Here was the impetus from reader Umeboshi:

umeboshi Says:
May 5th, 2008 at 8:23 am e
Whoa!
In what way are you a second class citizen here, Chinktalk?

ChinkTalk Says:
May 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

umeboshi - all you have to do is open up any newspaper and you will see it. Have you ever seen any recognition or anything positive about Chinese Canadian contributions from the media?
For example, the CanaArm had a significant Chinese Canadian contribution to its success, yet do you see any mention of that by the mainstream media. There are many trespasses against the Chinese that perhaps are not evident in your eyes.
But they do exist.
Having said all of that, I don’t want to be viewed as non-patriotic. In a democracy, don’t I have the right to vent my feelings. I am a Canadian and I will never betray my country. If I were white, I don’t think I would need to make this attestation.
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So continues our Blog thought:
The second class experience is distilled from the unrelenting underscoring of the “Chinese” in Chinese-Canadian.

For multi-generationals like the UGLY Chinese Canadian and even those of an earlier generation, it bothers us to see the work of our ancestors - in helping build this great country, eroded away by the constant pandering of, and by some of the newly arrived CCs. Not that they are all bad… it’s just that we bananas are lost in this sea of hyphenates.

Nisseis and Sanseis remain proud and true Canadians. The Japanese Canadian community has evolved along with the maturing of our nation – with a dignity and a Canadian heritage claimed by their community. The same cannot be said for Chinese hyphenates.

The Chinese communities (that’s right, communities with an ’s’), continue to receive new influx of peoples from the Chinese speaking countries. Thus, ensuring the continuity of old country ideas, values and customs. Not that all of this continuity is bad, but we (the CC community) also get the crap values along with the imports - crap like hatreds, biases, prejudices and elastic ethics.

Again, it’s not that immigrant Chinese have a monopoly on elastic ethics, but there is a common saying in the Chinese community - “(that) it is better to do business with a white, than it is with a Chinese as you will be screwed by one of your own”. (see LINK to earlier Blog, “Canadian businesses love Anal Sex”)

We feel Second class, because some new Chinese often view their old Canadian Chinese cousins with a disdain. A disdain because most of us multi-generational CCs hailed from the rural bumpkin areas of south China. And to this day, our ancestral dialects and lack of communicating in the Chinese language give away our heritage. Some of the newly arrived Chinese would recognize this dialect as those from a rural village. (LINK to “Speak Chinese You Idiot”)

In addition, it is unfathomable to some new Canadians in that bananas are not as status conscious. OMG.

I am proud of the Chinese and Japanese contributions to building Canada, but through little fault of the new immigrants, they know little of this past - they know nothing of the old bones found in Canada’s closets. Things like a time when Asians could not live in middle class neighbourhoods like West Vancouver, or get a job as a professional (Doctor, Dentist, Architect, teacher etc)… with university degree or no degree.

The newly arrived know very little of our Nation’s history and struggles. They do not know that many young brave men and women gave their lives so that we could vote.

When the Admiral of the Canadian Navy visited Vancouver a few years back, a pandering group of immigrant Chinese was there ready for the photo ops. You should had heard the hissing and spits of bile from some of our CC War Vets.

Everything is now on a platter and on a red carpet for the carpet baggers. In fact, their ethnicity is now a calling card for some of them. For political window dressing and for the Diversity Industries.

And for Politicians to identify new and old CCs as the same, it is painfully obvious that they too, know little of our history.

Even our Media.

When the CTV’s W5 presented “Campus Give away”, it claimed that “foreigners” were stealing University seats away from Canadians. They showed images of Chinese Canadians - you know, exotic celestials – despite the fact that some of them were bananas. Many Canadian born Chinese came to the defense of their immigrant new Canadians.

W5 protest image stolen from CCNC website

You don’t see much of this respect reciprocated back from the immigrant Chinese to Canadians of Chinese ancestry.

Chinese Canadians are seen as vote grubbing fodder. And the ones who gives them the largest support block will be the ones the Political opportunists pander to.

You’d feel second class too, when old PM Martin thanks an immigrant Chinese for helping “save” a Chinatown she had no connection to.

The constant “thanking” to newly arrived Chinese Canadians for the building of this nation, and the cowardly acceptance by some of these new hyphenates underscore a typical banana’s frustration.

Credit is never given to where it is due, but to where it is politically convenient.

Dare we say, is this racism? And remember this post, “What about OUR feelings?”

Umeboshi, yourself as a long time Canadian, understands the frustration we bananas feel when the ethnic industries get revved up during election fever time… and we coloured Canadians are only viewed as ethnics - not as full fledge Canadians.

The Japanese Cdn community continue to evolve with little external interference and usurping of history. A stark contrast to the Chinese Cdn community. This is something that most folks don’t think about when comparing the two Asian communities in Canada.

With all the heavy discussions and commentary on our UGLY Chinese Canadian Blog – on politics and on world unrest lately… we felt a bit of lightness is in order.

Q. Do you know why Chinese Canadians abstain from watching comedy movies?
A. they can’t see the screen if they laugh too hard.

“Assaulted Fish” - a Comedy troop out of Vancouver

Here is a collection of lists. Adapted from Yellow Bridge (on Chinese and Chinese American humour):

Chinese-Canadian Top Ten Lists

Top Ten Reasons Why There Won’t Be a Chinese-Canadian Prime Minister soon:

10. 24 Sussex Drive (PM’s residence) not big enough for in-laws.
9. Engineering, medicine, and law always preferred over politics.
8. Parliament Hill has bad feng shui.
7. Can’t find decent roast duck on the Hill.
6. RCMP & Ministerial Security can’t handle nagging from mother.
5. Dignitaries generally intimidated by chopsticks at Official dinners.
4. No chance for promotion.
3. Lactose intolerance not considered politically correct.
2. Senior aides won’t take off shoes before coming in.
1. No real Canadian equivalent of Air Force One: No frequent flyer miles.

Good Ol’ Russell Peters on Mandarin

and more thoughts from a Chinese American viewpoint:

How To Be a Better Chinese American Parent
(From a Second Generation Perspective)

1. Be a little more lenient on the 7:00 p.m. curfew.
2. Don’t ask where the other point went when your child comes home with grade on his/her report card. (Dad asks…”what, you don’t like A+?”)
3. Don’t “ai-yah” loudly at your kid’s dress habits.
4. Don’t blatantly hint about the merits of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford.
5. Don’t reveal all the intimate details of your kid’s life to the entire Asian community.
6. Don’t ask your child, “What are you going to do with your life?” if he/she majors in a non-science field.
7. Don’t give your son a bowl haircut.
8. Don’t try to set your kid up on a date in anticipation of their poor taste or inept social skills.
9. Incorporate other phrases besides, “Did you study yet?” or “When are you getting married?” into your daily conversations with your children.
10. Don’t ask all your kid’s friends over the age of 21 if they have a boyfriend or girlfriend yet.

How To Be a Better Chinese American Kid
(From a First Generation Perspective)

1. Score 1600 on the SAT.
2. Play the violin or piano on the level of a concert performer.
3. Apply to and be accepted by 27 colleges.
4. Have three hobbies: studying, studying, and studying.
5. Go to a prestigious Ivy League university and win enough scholarship to pay for it.
6. Love classical music and detest talking on the telephone.
7. Become a Westinghouse, Presidential, and eventually a Rhodes Scholar.
8. Aspire to be a brain surgeon.
9. Marry a Chinese American doctor and have perfect, successful children.
10. Love to hear stories about your parents’ childhood …especially the one about walking seven miles to school without shoes.

With all that negative press lately of China – the Olympic torch run, pollution, crap products and other noise, the UGLY Chinese Canadian would like to take this moment to remind folks that some Eggs had once poked us with a happy happy joy joy song.

Today’s word of the day is EGG:
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egg

Egg, (noun)
a Caucasian who worships Chinese / Asian culture
…thus “white” outside and “yellow” inside.
A wannabe Asian. The opposite of a “banana”

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Here’s a young Egg expressing his talent for Chinese in a Youtube vid …lipping to the words of an old Monty Python song, “I like Chinese”:

The original song is from the 1980 Monty Python Contractual Obligation album.

The song was written and performed by Eric Idle of Monty Python. The silly song is about a man who is not very happy with the rest of the world, except that he likes the Chinese.

Here’s a full length version of this Monty Python classic:

Thanks to all who answered our call for photos, stories and thoughts on the Vancouver rally march/ parade (LINK here) on Saturday, April 26, 2008.

Please continue to forward your photos and comments… we will share them here where appropriate. (forward to: tellme @uglychinesecanadian.com)

So it looks like a “Western” Media did make an appearance … none other than our beloved CBC.

photo courtesy of ©TJ

This photo was submitted to the UGLY Chinese Canadian, and the photo shows a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) camera man filming Mr. Jang, President of the Chinese Benevolent Association (Vancouver), organizer of 67 different Vancouver community groups for the sunny Saturday event.

So what happened to this footage by this CBC cameraman? This comment was attached to the photo and email:

[…] CBC’s cameraman interviewed Mr. Mike Jang and the Rally on the same day. But, if you can find any story either in CBC’s TV news or their website: www.cbc.ca on the April 26 Chinese communities rally and parade (5000 people joined), I’d call it a miracle.
[…]
CBC’s blind and deaf with April 19 Ottawa Chinese protest in front of the Peace Tower (about 10k people joined). While CTV.ca reported that event.

This is what we are proud of - the “free” press […]

So who is deciding what gets shown or not shown on television? and the newspapers?

Hmmmm, last time we checked, we didn’t have media censorship here in Canada.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian says “FREE Canada!”

… and that doesn’t mean Freeing Canada from any tyranny, or free speech, or any of that other Mom & Apple pie stuff, it means exactly what it says – “FREE“.

Meaning Canada is Free! … Free of charge! Nada! Zilch! Zippo! to any person or organization who wants to abuse it.

FREE FREE FREE FREE!!!! Whoo hoo! Free! Gratis!

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remember FREE Québec ?

Where’s Charles DeGaulle when you really need him?

VIVRE LE QUÉBEC LIBRE!
Discours du 24 juillet 1967, à l’hôtel de ville de Montréal.

What if the Vancouver Chinese community held a protest? and over 5,000 people appeared?

What if the protest was against perceived “Western Media bias”? Support for the Beijing Olympics?

What if no English language media covered the protest?

Guess what?

That was the synopsis of what actually occurred this past weekend, in multi-cultural bi-cultural Vancouver.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian had been invited to participate on a Vancouver Chinese community protest against perceived Western Media bias on the current Tibet-China unrest.

UGLY CC had prior obligations, and could not participate as an observer… so the events and facts presented here are of a secondary source.

However, just do a Google search on “Tibet”, “Vancouver”, “Chinese”, or “Chinese-Canadians” for the protest this past Saturday (April 26, 2008) - you will find almost no coverage in the English language media. A rather interesting observation, considering there have been very public efforts to promote the saccharin laden ideology of “Diversity” and “Multi-culturalism” in this City.

Apparently, the English language media had been informed and a short brief did appear on the Friday, April 25th Vancouver daily “24 hours” Newspaper - announcing the upcoming event.

There was hardly a wink of news coverage on the event, here in the west.

Scarcily any English language media coverage on a topic that is bothering a great number of Chinese Canadians here in multi-cultural bi-cultural Vancouver.

Remember our thoughts about English vs Chinese media coverage?

>
(link to earlier post on Chinese v/s English Media)

A search on the web will find many other sources of coverage on this event - from China “5,000 protesters“, and from YouTube videos… this time with lots of Canadian flags… and needless to say, no politicians.

Protest? What protest?

Wait, coming soon to a venue near you, an even more important event in multi-cultural bi-cultural VANCOUVER…

Another tolerant multi-cultural pro-diversity Green sustainable ethnic-Canadian anti-racism happy-Harmony love-in Forum!

Now, THAT’s News. Whoo-hoo!!!

Politicians, please behave, and wait in line for YOUR turn. Wait for a number for YOUR photo-OP.
[HEY… someone pull that Chinese-Canadian politician queue jumper by his ear and return him back to the end of the line up]

finally… introducing Bite Mee:

Bite Mee is the UGLY Chinese Canadian’s official talking head. Bite Mee, the banana, will make his appearance whenever a term or a thought requires an expanded explanation.

For example, Bite Mee appears here as a thought bubble for the term “banana”:

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banana

Ba*na”na\, (noun)
A banana is a person of Asian descent born (or “assimilated”) in the West (Canada, Australia, Britain) … yellow outside…white inside.
Also known as a “Jook Sing” (like bamboo, both ends “plugged” so little from either culture is thoroughly absorbed).

The opposite of a Banana is an Egg (white outside and yellow inside).

1. Bob: Our classmate doesn’t speak a word of Chinese…he’s embarrassed of the fact that he’s Chinese.

   Carol: Yeah, he’s a Banana.

2. Bob: How about that new white guy from Ontario?… he speaks fluent Mandarin!
   

   Carol: Yeah, he’s an Egg!

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The UGLY Chinese Canadian often accused of being a rotten banana, is in fact, proud of his roots, and knows that:

Assimilation is futile. You will be resisted
(because Bananas will always appear foreign to round eyes).

A first. Chinese characters!

The UGLY Chinese Canadian notices that a lot of blogs out there in the blogosphere contain a lot of mindless banter and silly (but fun) information. Stuff like,

I just cooked breakfast and am now about to sit on the throne while I read the papers…

So following this lead, the UGLY Chinese Canadian will just post a short thought today.

As some of you may have noticed, the tagline for this ol’ blog gets changed every so often… just for the fun of it!

Today, our blog will feature for the first time, a Chinese language tagline to reflect a succinct summary of what this belly ache blog is all about – a banana bites back.

And thanks to Google translate (with help from a Chinese language bud), here is our tagline in Chinese (traditional):

a banana bites back 香蕉華人回咬

Ancestors would be proud.

PS. thanks to reader Umeboshi for the inspiration.

Here’s a thought to ponder.

As a Canadian born person of Chinese ancestry… who would you support? At the Olympic games, who would you root for?

China or Canada?

The Olympic one is an easy one. …the UGLY Chinese Canadian would cheer on Canada at the Olympics.

Proud Chinese Canadian soldiers (WW II)
earning respect for all Canadians

Now, let’s take this thought one step further. If Canada went to war with China… who would you support?

This is a question that has been asked of the UGLY Chinese Canadian.

Who would you support?

That depends on what the issue and what the cause was. That is my answer.

It’s like asking, “who do you love better”? Your parents or your children?

So in order to make an informed answer, one must understand and research the issue …no matter how unpalatable or difficult.

That is the problem.

The UGLY Chinese Canadian has been surfing over the myriad of “They said” vs “We said” discussion forums and “News” on the whole Tibetan-Chinese unrest. It appears that many are using the excuse that because “YOU” have “human rights” issues …therefore, YOU don’t count.

How simplistic.

It’s incredible that we assume that the majority of people understand the complexities and historic background of the current Tibetan-Chinese issue …when a great number of these people don’t even research something as simple as the background of a local political candidate. Let alone participate (vote) in an election.

But back to our ponderance… who would you support in a conflict?

Here’s an interesting interview from this past weekend’s Ottawa Citizen newspaper:

[…] …But that doesn’t prevent us from loving our countries and the people from both nations.

China is our motherland where many of us were born and raised, Canada is our current residing country where we have our families and jobs here. Technically, we’re Canadian first. We’re hard-working people, contributing to society, the local economy and volunteer missions.

However, no matter how long we live in another country, it does not change where our roots are. …[…] (see Ottawa Citizen for article)

the above excerpt was from a new Chinese-Canadian (the paper identified the person as being Canadian for 20 years).

So here is a question from this blog, The UGLY Chinese Canadian, for all you Bananas out there…

What are your thoughts on the whole Tibet - China discussion?

Do the flames of racial finger pointing (eg. comments on Youtube videos and discussion forums) upset you?

Do you care?

Would you march on a rally of support? and for who?… the Tibetans or the Chinese?

Would you support a boycott of Chinese products … or support the Chinese in their boycott of Western products?

Let’s hear from you, we’d especially like to hear from Canada’s real minorities, the Bananas… caught in two worlds.

What if.

What if we opened our minds…