Comments on: The void http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/ Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:53:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: Xi http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2981 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:01:40 +0000 http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2981 "Normal" doesn't exist. That's the problem with tropical countries - everything turns mouldy so much faster. “Normal” doesn’t exist.

That’s the problem with tropical countries - everything turns mouldy so much faster.

]]> by: talfryn.net » Blog Archive » More on belonging http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2979 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 07:56:13 +0000 http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2979 [...] I had once asked my parents if we were still considered expatriates. Perhaps not, was the answer, since we’re all holding red passports now. But we certainly are living an expat lifestyle. Our mode of living, inclusive of everything from where we live, where we buy our groceries from, where we hang out, how we travel, our consumption habits, the friends we mingle with, our language - Cantonese, and when we’re speaking English, our accents, scream out that we’re not quite locals. I don’t mean to be elitist. I don’t really feel that way. I just feel different. Recently I told my parents that I wished I could be more ‘normal’. To just be a ‘normal’ person (a sentiment which two of my friends shares, albeit in a slightly different manner). The saying goes ‘poor have poor problems, the rich have rich problems’. I admit, we’re considered rather well-off, fortunate in many ways, and we’re all spoilt, and I don’t really like that feeling, not only because it alienates me from the society I want to embrace, the friends I want to make (it can get real tough sometimes), and some of the aspirations I seek to achieve, but because this imposes upon me certain expectations and standards to live up to, some set for myself by myself, and some set for myself as a result of the perceived mould that I am being shaped into by my family and our place in society. The problem is, there is no sense of freedom. The Chinese are a highly collectivist people, and I cannot just bring it upon myself to break away. There is, after all, this thing called ‘face’. Not only for myself, but for all those my in-groups. But I digress. [...] […] I had once asked my parents if we were still considered expatriates. Perhaps not, was the answer, since we’re all holding red passports now. But we certainly are living an expat lifestyle. Our mode of living, inclusive of everything from where we live, where we buy our groceries from, where we hang out, how we travel, our consumption habits, the friends we mingle with, our language - Cantonese, and when we’re speaking English, our accents, scream out that we’re not quite locals. I don’t mean to be elitist. I don’t really feel that way. I just feel different. Recently I told my parents that I wished I could be more ‘normal’. To just be a ‘normal’ person (a sentiment which two of my friends shares, albeit in a slightly different manner). The saying goes ‘poor have poor problems, the rich have rich problems’. I admit, we’re considered rather well-off, fortunate in many ways, and we’re all spoilt, and I don’t really like that feeling, not only because it alienates me from the society I want to embrace, the friends I want to make (it can get real tough sometimes), and some of the aspirations I seek to achieve, but because this imposes upon me certain expectations and standards to live up to, some set for myself by myself, and some set for myself as a result of the perceived mould that I am being shaped into by my family and our place in society. The problem is, there is no sense of freedom. The Chinese are a highly collectivist people, and I cannot just bring it upon myself to break away. There is, after all, this thing called ‘face’. Not only for myself, but for all those my in-groups. But I digress. […]

]]> by: husky http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2978 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:49:55 +0000 http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2978 that's what i say when i am here. i tell my mom i wish i could be more 'normal'. and then it'll spark whole arguments and well... i guess i can't ever be 'normal'. i should be proud of it and our status in singaporean society. that’s what i say when i am here. i tell my mom i wish i could be more ‘normal’. and then it’ll spark whole arguments and well… i guess i can’t ever be ‘normal’. i should be proud of it and our status in singaporean society.

]]> by: MZ http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2976 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:18:50 +0000 http://www.qugee.com/xiao/2007/09/the-void/#comment-2976 I wished I was more normal, I won't feel so out of place in HK. I feel way too out of place here. I wished I was more normal, I won’t feel so out of place in HK. I feel way too out of place here.

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