Are you Chinese enough?

Peter asked me the other day, what's the story behind the mid autumn festival. 

I was kinda caught off guard by his question, but in order to show him that I am a true Chinese of substance, I started to tell him bit and pieces of whatever mid autumn folktales I can dig from my Chinese root. I told him about the sky was once filled 10 suns, the archer Hou Yi went and shoot down the 9 suns in order to save the people from suffering, but for some reason his wife travels to the moon and got stuck there. But there was another story about the origin of mooncakes, whereby the villagers planted the message in the mooncakes so that everyone was called to rebel against the ruling government on the mid autumn day. 

Anyway, Peter looked kinda lost after listened to my disoriented story.

 *embarrassed*

I have to admit that I felt kinda embarrassed. The whole conversation started in the first place because I invited Peter to my friend's place for the mid-autumn customary 'moon-gazing' and moon-cake eating. It's kinda ironic that I couldn't explain to my non-Chinese husband what's mid autumn festival is all about when we Chinese are so gung ho about celebrating it. To make it worse, none of my Chinese friends knew about the full story of mid autumn festival either. 

Frankly speaking, in general, Malaysian Chinese aren't really that "chinese" as we claimed ourselves to be. I can't speak for others, but if I take myself as an example,  I don't know much about the Chinese philosophy like Confucius's春秋; I am least Chinese when it comes to observe the tradition. To make it worse, I don't even look like a Chinese, as many have mistaken me for the Sarawak's natives as I don't have the Chinese stapled slit eyes (mata sepet) and fair skin. In a way, I think we are more Malaysian than Chinese in many ways. This is not really a surprise considering for Chinese of my generation, we live our whole life in the country which basically a melting pot of different cultures and ethnics.    

However, with that being said, I do appreciate my heritage and my root as a Chinese. I was raised in as a Chinese and can never be less of a Chinese no matter how much the surroundings change and what the circumstances are. My understanding towards the Chinese history and teaching may not be all that great, but at least I do see the beauty of the Chinese values such as the importance of the family; the cultivation of morality and the emphasis on hard work and achievement. 

Anyway, happy mid autumn festival folks!

Lantern decoration @mid autumn festival, 2013