Chinese Face, British Mind

How does the second generation of Chinese immigrants live in
Cardiff?

 

Ally is a 19 year-old girl who was born in
Cardiff. Her parents immigrated from Guangdong province in China 27 years ago and have never been back to their hometown.

 Every Friday afternoon, Ally goes to a Chinese language class for learning Cantonese. This is because a year ago, she fell in love with a boy who comes from
Hong Kong and she hopes to be able to communicate with her boyfriend in his mother language. When she first went into the class, some of her classmates were quite astonished. “They thought I was the teacher because they didn’t believe I can’t speak Chinese. But in fact, I only have a Chinese face.”

Ally calls herself “BBC”, abbreviation of “British Born Chinese”. It means those overseas Chinese who were born in the United Kingdom. The majority in this group are from former British territories, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, and also other countries such as Vietnam, whereas people from mainland China and Taiwan and their descendents make up a relatively small proportion of the British Chinese.

In Cardiff, there are nearly 50 “BBC” around Ally’s age. They are the second or third generation of their families in the UK; They have British citizenship but celebrate Chinese traditional festivals together; They communicate with each other in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, even in some dialects and have their own forum on the Internet. 

“We get on well, so we must be from the same kind of background.” Jenny, an active girl in “the BBC forum” said.

Jenny has a special family history. “My grandpa left Hubei (a middle province in China) because he did not want to join the Red Army,” she explained. “He went to Vietnam and then opened up a dental surgery. My mother and father had an arranged marriage and left Vietnam for the UK shortly after the Vietnam War.”

So Jenny can speak fluent Cantonese and Mandarin, basic Hubei dialect and Vietnamese. She learnt all these languages from her family and from TVB, a Channel operated by Television Broadcasts Limited in Hong Kong.

Lee, Jenny’s “BBC” friend, can also speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Generally, most “BBC” people can speak one or two languages apart from English. They learn Chinese from families or language school in Cardiff, formally or informally. The Chinese Sunday Class of Fitzalan High School and the Sunday
Chinese School run by the Cardiff Chinese Christian Church are the most widely known. Jenny and Lee have both been to some classes to improve their Chinese.

“Understanding different languages helped me to learn better and easier,” Lee stated, “I can read more and understand more than my peers.”

For their lives in Cardiff, most “BBC” pointed out there is no difference to other natives. They are all pretty much westernized so they have always been called as “banana people” who have Chinese face but British mind. And they are also eager to enter into society as a host even though sometimes they come across racism.

“I don’t think I was different to my British classmates. I was treated the same and you know, two of my closest friends are British.” Jenny said.        

interview                    

The last challenge for Hyper Value

A huge “store closing” sign has been hanging outside a Hyper Value store located near Cardiff city centre for more than a month. And recently, a new “50% price for Christmas” advert has been prominently displayed nest to it. The cut-price shopping chain announced last month that 9 of its 15 stores in Wales are to close.

When I walked around the city centre branch which is on the “to be closed list”, I realized why discount stores have been so popular and at the same time, why they had lost their buoyant market status in recent years.

In contrast with the deserted scene of recent months, the store is now busy and full of Christmas atmosphere. The clearance advertisements attract many more customers than at any other time and people fill their shopping basket as if all the merchandise is free.

In fact, I was a little shocked by the low prices, such as children’s thermal gloves at £1 for three pairs, Christmas cards less than 2p each and Christmas decorations selling for just 30p.

Crossing over the road to Sainsbury, I could only find a few fine Christmas cards and bells on a small shelf. Of course, they all cost more than £1.5 each. When I asked whether there were some Christmas pompoms or colored lights, the answer from staff was “Not yet… Maybe in a week…” Obviously, the store has not yet plunged into the commercial Christmas period.

“When I first passed by this store, I believed that it was an old storehouse rather than an open shop,” said a new Korean student at Cardiff University. “Now I think there are some good things with really amazing prices and it is a clever choice to shop for Christmas there.” But she added: “Despite low prices, I would not shop there very often because in my mind, the bargains always lack good quality.”

As she mentioned, the merchandise in store stacked in a disorderly fashion. Some bath towels and children’s gloves are even thrown on the floor. Moreover, various knick-knacks and bits and pieces on the shelf seem to be fragile and only fit to be used once.  

Generally, most of the Christmas party goods will no doubt end up in the bin when December 26 comes. So the majority of people would not care too much about the quality and durability of their Christmas stuff.

However, Christmas only comes once a year. Other times, as Mr Morgan, a director at Cardiff Business School asserted, “people would camouflage themselves to walk into Hyper Value and wouldn’t want to be seen there.” He pointed out, “Young people, especially teenagers would never be seen walking round with a Hyper Value carrier bag.”

The city centre store will close on the Saturday before Christmas. Consequently, with much lower prices than other competitors and much earlier engagement in the Christmas commercial competition, it is the last challenge for the South Wales-based retailer to struggle for profit.