Welcome to the year of the dragon!
I love Chinese New Year.
And I love that Patrick is Asian for no reason other than Chinese New Year. It’s basically the only reason I’m with him. Just so I can celebrate it with his family with such authenticity. Well, maybe I like him for just a few other reasons.
Every year we all wear red. We go to Chinatown and watch the lion dances. We hand out Ang Pow (the little red envelopes that you put 2 of the same quantity of money – eg. 2x $2 coins – and give to everyone who is the generation below you).
But this year we are going totally nuts.
Why? Because we are celebrating Chinese NY twice. And because one of the celebrations is on Thursday (read Australia Day!)… And this is where I’m torn. My love for Chinese NY and my Australian-ness have come to a head.
(By the way… what is Australian anyway? What foods are Australian? Kangaroo? What are Australian traditions? I don’t see many people performing Aboriginal tribal dances on Australia Day. We are such a multi-cultural country, is there really any correct way to celebrate Australia? Just a thought.)
Anyway… the funny thing is, I have never really celebrated Australia Day. Sure, I take time to reflect and be grateful for what it means. And I enjoy the fact that it’s a public holiday! But I rarely attend any formal celebrations for it.
But now that it clashes with a Chinese NY celebration, I suddenly feel like I should be throwing shrimps on barbies, patting my pet kangaroo, wearing thongs (of the footwear variety preferably), playing beach cricket (whilst avoiding deadly sea creatures) and driving through the bush in my rusty Holden ute!
But this is my life now. It will always be a balance of cultures in our family. We have a full Asian (Gracie), a half (Patrick), a quarter (Evie) and then there’s little old me… The whitey. And upon mentioning being the only one in our family without any Asian with me, Patrick piped up with one of his ‘standard Patrick comments’… “I know a way you can get a bit of Asian in you”. Thinking he was oh so hilarious and oh so smart. And I thought, does anyone else have to put up with these types of comments? And do these types of comments actually work on other women? Then last night I read this post. And I laughed. And I was glad. Read it, it’s a funny one.
So anyway, maybe on Thursday I’ll still paint an Australian flag on my cheek. But it may be hidden under my red dress.
