Identity and Chineseness

I have lived in Edinburgh for nearly three months and I am ready to go in a few days. Writing down a few lines is a good way to refresh the mind and soul.

Living abroad is a fantastic experience. It broadens your mind and deepens your soul no matter it was a good or bad experience. Living in a foreign and exotic city is an art. Long term planning is needed. Strategies have to be made.

Unlike travelling, staying in the house doing nothing is no harm. You don't have the guilty feeling of wasting valuable (financially, in fact) time to travel around.

As soon as I settled down with the hope of ease and comfort to make myself at home, I, and my wife, felt the strong sense of Chinesness deep inside our souls. Here I am. I came back to Britain again.

Researching in NLS the other day, I read an interesting piece in a local magazine featuring identity. Its foreword caught my eyes and emotion. It reads:

“Reflecting on my own identity, I realise that my Scottishness came into sharp focus when I moved out of Scotland. This seems to be a common occurrence for Scots. As one of our contributors points out, you don’t necessarily practice your Scottishness at home over the breakfast table. But when you move away you are forced to think about whom you are and hwere you fit.” (Mandy Rhodes (ed.), Scottishness: Reflections on Identity (Holyrood Magazine 2006), foreword, p. 9)