Whilst patriotic Brits industriously paved the roadside with Union
Jacks for 140km from Dorking to The Mall to inspire road racer Lizzie Armitstead
to claim Britain’s first medal of the games, observing this as a discombobulated British Chinese, the feel good factor is hard to masticate let alone swallow, I feel British, but not British enough to fly
the Union Jack in support of 'Team GB.'
We’re constantly reminded by the British multiculturalism debate that ethnic representation promotes both inclusion and the feeling of being part of something bigger, whilst it maybe partly true, the argument is not entirely convincing. In the run up to the London Olympic Games 2012 there was East Asian representation aplenty. The Olympic torch passed through the hub of London's Chinatown, carried by popular Spectrum Radio DJ Steven Cheung (half Chinese half Filipino speaks fluent Cantonese).
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Judging by his Twitterings, Steven Cheung appears somewhat enamoured by the British monarchy, so is pianist Lang Lang for that matter, nonetheless it's still East Asian paper representation, not to mention British Chinese musicians Andy Leung and Liz Liew who were commissioned to compose
XX/XY for the games.
Roll on the opening ceremony, East Asian faces were bountiful but none were given a prominent role. Instead Black producer Catherine Ugwu and ebony obsessed Danny Boyle - blatantly agenda driven by his own inter racial relationship with mixed Black actress Rosario Dawson, intentionally over-hyped and over-represented Blacks with their Windrush, their urban music, their inter racial relationships and even their mixed Black offspring, however, our Chinese culture, our struggle, our journey was absent from the ceremony, tokenism is not to be taken lightly - as usual our identity is only tolerated within the narrow context of being multicultural rather than being Chinese.
Onto the games itself. Who am I expected to cheer for if there are no British Born Chinese sportsmen nor sportswomen representing Team GB? Of the 564 athletes representing Great Britain at the London Olympic games 2012, only two are of East Asian origin. Laotian Anne Keothavong is British Born East Asian, she's not a big name, nor is Chinese immigrant
Na Liu. Hypothetically if high profile Chinese legend Wang Hao jumped ship to become a British citizen to compete for Team GB, would that be persuasive in supporting Team GB unequivocally? The answer would probably still be No. Its not that I'm anti-British nor anti-English, as a Londoner I paid my contribution to the games, I recognised all the ‘Best of British’ references in the opening ceremony...William Henry Monk’s Abide With Me, Blur, Brunel,
Jk Rowling and I'm proud of the NHS, however none of the aforementioned will ever rescind my Chineseness, I will never willfully fly a
Union Jack flag nor sing
God Save The Queen, nor am I alone -
five Team GB footballers including Welshmen Ryan Giggs snubbed the British national anthem.
To put it in perspective, University of Essex's Institute of Social And Economic Research recent household study
Understanding Society revealed that of Britain’s ethnic groups, Whites (Scottish
and Welsh hold strong non-British identities), Chinese and
Afro-Caribbeans associate least closely with Britishness, though as expected, identification with Britishness
was higher among the children and grandchildren of migrants.
Evidently, for those of us who take pride in being Chinese and consider
our mother roots to be important, our ethnic identity as 'Chinese' remains very strong, stronger than any concept of Britishness.
By BBCZeitgeist
