The One About My Ethnicity

A few years back, I laughed so hard at Darrel for not knowing that he is NOT Chinese after 21 years. This weekend, karma bit me so hard in the arse, I wish I never laughed at him.

As some of you might have already know, my parents came over last Thursday to spend Merdeka Weekend in Johor. Being the filial son that I am, I decided to take them to Singapore's Sentosa Island. Don't worry, I'm not gonna talk about the trip in Singapore, you can read that from my upcoming posting on Multiply. I'm gonna just jump to the main story.

At Sentosa's Images Of Singapore, Mom was reading this history about Singapore's origin and its people when she suddenly said: "Come see this. This is so true. My grandmother was a Nyonya. She used to wear exactly like that!" A what? "She's Baba Nyonya."

My brain foze.

Mom went on telling me about how her grandmother was a Nyonya who wears what and how she would tie her hair up in a bun and etc. But she lost me when she told me that my great grandmother was Nyonya.

"Are you telling me that I'm NOT Chinese?" Mom then only realise that I wasn't listening anymore. "Well if you put it that way, then yes. You're mix."

All these years I was wrong! I thought that I'm Chinese but I'm not?! I'm now part-Malay?! As if that is not enough to shock me, Mom told me something even more interesting. "Do you know that your grandmother -- your Dad's mother -- is half Thai?"

So there you go. After 29 years, 1 month and 20 days, jess discovered that he is NOT a pure Chinese! I now know how Darrel felt... I'm sorry bro, I shouldn't have laughed at you.

- jessism © 03092008 -