"Wo Pu Hui Chiang Hwa Yee, Ni Ker Yi Chiang Kwong Tung Hwa Mah?" - was amongst the first line of Mandarin I learnt
Oi! That's neither Hakka nor Cantonese lah.
With my broken Cantonese, I was never really seen as a pure chinese during my younger days. In fact, seeing that my Malay seems to be more fluent, my Malay colleagues have nicknamed me Mat and it has stuck with me for the past couple of years.
You see, my couz, Catherine and myself took it upon ourselves to derive a family tree a couple of years ago from the little information that we have. At the word go, all was plain sailing, seeing that we only had immediate relatives, siblings and cousins to start with. To dig further, it obviously meant having to wipe the webs off family photos, meeting them and engaging them in *boring* conversations on family generations.
Aunt Christine told us sometime last year that we are of Hakka heritage. Huh? Hello? I'm Cantonese ok, so I've been told. Goddamnit, I've been lying to everybody. I have not even mastered the Cantonese dialect, how lah to master Hakka. Anyhow, she said in order for us to see further up the tree, we needed to pay a visit to the Hakka Association. Nah, too troublesome. So, what I have here is all that we know.
If for any reason, you so happen to see someone you are related to on the list, please get in touch with me. I would gladly buy you a "Kat Chai Shin Mui" and you can fill in the blanks of the family tree further. My couz, Catherine can be contacted at cathcsh@yahoo.com and you know where to find me.
Oi! That's neither Hakka nor Cantonese lah.
With my broken Cantonese, I was never really seen as a pure chinese during my younger days. In fact, seeing that my Malay seems to be more fluent, my Malay colleagues have nicknamed me Mat and it has stuck with me for the past couple of years.
You see, my couz, Catherine and myself took it upon ourselves to derive a family tree a couple of years ago from the little information that we have. At the word go, all was plain sailing, seeing that we only had immediate relatives, siblings and cousins to start with. To dig further, it obviously meant having to wipe the webs off family photos, meeting them and engaging them in *boring* conversations on family generations.
Aunt Christine told us sometime last year that we are of Hakka heritage. Huh? Hello? I'm Cantonese ok, so I've been told. Goddamnit, I've been lying to everybody. I have not even mastered the Cantonese dialect, how lah to master Hakka. Anyhow, she said in order for us to see further up the tree, we needed to pay a visit to the Hakka Association. Nah, too troublesome. So, what I have here is all that we know.
If for any reason, you so happen to see someone you are related to on the list, please get in touch with me. I would gladly buy you a "Kat Chai Shin Mui" and you can fill in the blanks of the family tree further. My couz, Catherine can be contacted at cathcsh@yahoo.com and you know where to find me.
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