Romanian | Malaysian Chinese
I identify as Asian European; my Father is Romanian and my Mother is Malaysian Chinese. My Dad was sent from Romania to Malaysia on a trip to understand how military trucks were maintained and built. One beautiful day he wanted to open a bank account where my Mum was working and guess who was on shift that time, that’s my Mum!
They definitely struggled a lot initially since they wanted me to experience both of their cultures. I have to say that they did an excellent job in this and I am also sure that they had to compromise a lot. An example of this was my Mother’s superstition during special days, coming from a Chinese Taoist family, whereas my Father didn’t bother too much.
My parents went through a lot of racism throughout their dating and married life. My Chinese families did not approve of interracial marriage, their relationship was a talking point for our neighbours and my own school. Although this racism issue did not fully disappear in this generation however I have personally seen a shift of attitude from people talking about mixed-race families where people are more excited and interested.
Because of my mixed-race culture, I am now married to my partner who is of a Malaysian Malay race (adding culture spices on our family tree!). It’s an easy ice-breaker whenever I meet new people. Whenever someone sees my face and knows my name, you could see a question mark floating on top of their head. Once I start explaining my family’s origin it always becomes a topic of interest across the room!
People place certain expectations on you that you must be the best of both worlds, for example my Mother being the descendant of Chinese origin, people expect me to be really good in mathematics. Likewise for my Father of Romanian origin, there is a certain expectation that I will be a great engineer.
Music and TV shows wise I am severely addicted to Chinese dramas and artists. This is mostly attributed to the fact that in my very early years I grew up in my Chinese Grandmother’s house where the house background is filled with Chinese-Cantonese drama which made the house very lively. However food and language wise, I tend to be quite Romanian. This is most probably because I went to a national school in Romania where I fell in love with the romance language. My Father and my Romanian Godmother were also avid cooks where they would also showcase to me their Romanian food weekly on Sunday! I have lived and schooled in both countries so I happen to understand both of these cultures quite well.
My connection to my identity has definitely changed as I have gotten older. I never identified myself as mixed-race when I was young but as I got older, the race topic started to be more prevalent. This is when I started understanding the mixed-race importance and what my parents went through to bring me to this world.
If I had the opportunity to be reborn I definitely loved to be back with my mixed heritage. It was a beautiful experience that I want to make sure my children have too!