How I learned to love my cultural heritage

My First "Real" Visit to China

The first time I visited China I was only four, with truthfully no recollection of my experiences. However, in 2009, I came for the first "real" time on a vacation with my family. We started from Beijing, where we stayed across from the Bird’s Nest（鳥巢）， Beijing stood out to me for its rich history, and the traditional feel of its hutong (胡同). Coming the year after the Olympics, it felt Beijing still had a tourist buzz to it at all of the major historical sites we visited. I remember eating Beijingnese food at a restaurant near Qianmen Street (前門街), really tasting the famous, subtle flavors of Thinly-Sliced Potato (土豆絲) for the first time in my life.

Thinly-Sliced Potato

In Shanghai, we stayed in the Hongkou district, where the history of the city’s occupational past really stood out to me. Hangzhou exceeded my expectations, with the romanticism of her West Lake (西湖) and the sheer magnitude of the Leifang Pagoda and finally, at Guilin, we watched Zhang Yi-Mou’s spectacular show "Impression Liu San Jie." Some of my fondest, simple memories were of my daily morning runs, stopping by the local park to watch elderly men and woman dance, meditate, and play Chess late into the sweaty summer afternoon.

Looking Forward… Back in China Again

Since 2009, I have travelled and researched in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand and have seen in each of these regions how Chinese culture and heritage has spread. It makes me feel so proud to be Chinese.

Now, as a law student, I am trying to find ways to continue connecting with to my Chinese roots. In Canada, there are major issues affecting the Chinese-Canadian community. The foreign degrees of immigrants are often not recognized in Canada (something my parents both had to endure, as Chinese-trained doctors). Many of these immigrants resort to working at convenience stores or as taxi drivers and are not able to meet their full intellectual potential. Second, many Chinese are unable to rise to high-level positions in society (Executives, Judges, and Politicians), held back by a bamboo-ceiling created by many of the same false cultural assumptions I have faced during my life.

Contrary to what is often misrepresented in Western media, Chinese culture is one of the most well-developed, respectful, innovative, and influential cultures on earth. Chinese people are some of the nicest, most filial, and family-oriented individuals I know.

As a Chinese born-overseas, I believe we have a major role in Canada to play as cultural ambassadors to help other Canadians find their Chinese hearts and better appreciate Chinese culture. In China, we can act as go-betweens by sharing our Western culture and our strengths in creativity and management to benefit Chinese society. Ultimately, a world more intertwined between cultures and between countries will be one with less conflict and more collective social responsibility.

To conclude, I hope that by telling "My Chinese Story", I can encourage those who read it to think about their own cultural identity, and the great potential that within it and beyond the liabilities that we often attach to it.

Will Tao is interning this summer for a large pharmaceutical company in Shanghai. He is currently a law student at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Will hopes to improve his Mandarin and return to China to work as a legal consultant.

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