Proudly Chinese SA

I am a third generation South African Chinese, born and raised in JHB.

I am proudly South African! 

I can speak Afrikaans, I can sing the national anthemn and I love biltong and braais. I am first and foremost South African.

I was born in 1980 in the south of Johannesburg, so grew up during apartheid but was fortunate not to suffer too much as I was young. Apartheid ended in 1994 when I was 14 years old. My grandfather came over around 1920. My Dad used to tell us stories of how badly the Chinese were treated, including himself.  He was sworn at many times and teased. Chinese were not allowed to live or own property in certain areas - nor were they allowed in the 'Whites only' beaches, toilets and buses. We lived in Southdale and, along with my brother, I attended Robertsham Primary School. In Standard 4 (or Grade 6 as it is called today) I remember that Coloured and Black learners were allowed into our school for the first time. It was a Model C school. I think that I was probably too young to fully understand what was going on. To me it was nice to have more interesting children at our school. In primary school, I played netball, did well academically (I received the Dux Ludorum for top academic achiever), was a prefect in Standard 5 and I never missed a day of school. I remember eating iced zoo biscuits, rusks, niknaks and simba chips as a child. I remember the empty milk bottles which we used to leave on our wall. I remember visiting the Rand Easter Show. Going to Eastgate Shopping Centre and Sandton City was a treat, and we used to love slap chips, pies, Steers and KFC burgers :)

My family was Catholic so we went to church in Robertsham every Sunday. I went to Catechism on Saturdays, was baptised when I was born, did my first holy communion and got confirmed. We celebrated Christmas, Easter and New Year's Day, like most families. We often had a braai or roast on these holidays. I believed in Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny (amazing how my mother fooled us all those years!).

I attended Sir John Adamson High School in Winchester Hills. I played netball, did drama, public speaking and was even Headgirl and Scholar of the Year in matric. The south of JHB was always looked down upon, as the posh areas were in the north. I was proud to have grown up in JHB south, as it taught me to be tough and to strive for a better life.

After school I studied at Wits, did an undergrad in Computer Science and Maths, and I did my honours in Maths.

I worked in business for many years as a strategy analyst. I now run a literacy NGO called Read to Rise, which my husband and I founded www.readtorise.org. We promote youth literacy in under-resourced communities. I also run a publishing company, I illustrate children's books and am a fine arts photographer.

South Africa is a great country, there is so much beauty to see, great food, sunshine and we have such diverse cultures. I know that we have the legacy of apartheid and that it will be an ongoing challenge to reach social justice for all, but South Africa has come a long way, we are politically free. I am proud to South African.

I am proudly Chinese!

Sadly, growing up in the western world, we have lost a lot of our Chinese culture. My Mom and Dad spoke English, I went to English schools and had English-speaking friends. I can't speak Mandarin. The Chinese community in SA is very small, estimated at only 10,000 of the local Chinese. I remember we used to go to original Chinatown now and again. I remember the Chinese New Year and Double Tenth Chinese Celebrations. I used to do Chinese dancing and Modern dancing for Chung Wah, a Chinese association. We used to dance at different locations around JHB. Through this I was fortunate to go on a tour to Taiwan and Hong Kong with the Chung Wah dancers. We even danced in Swaziland a few times, and Lesotho. We danced on Good Morning South Africa and at Mandela's Inauguration on 27 April 1994! I also played basketball. The Chinese have an Easter Sports Tournament every year in a different city. I played for Southern Transvaal a few times.  There is an annual Hong Ning Braai every year to raise funds for the aged.

My grandmother in PE used to make delicious Chinese bowties, noodles, dumplings, etc. Many years ago my mom used to have a stall at the Rosebank fleamarket selling Chinese goods.

I have a Chinese name given to me by my Dad's dad. Our surname should have been Zhu but when my grandfather came over from China they wrote his surname as Lock. The Chinese write their surname first so obviously that was the misunderstanding as his name was Lok.

The Chinese have a colourful heritage. We always used to get red packets with money for birthdays and new year, this was for good luck. On birthdays, we ate noodles. On New Year eve, we'd eat Chinese rice soup (we called Chok) and fried chicken, and play fireworks.

I sadly have lost touch with the Chinese community over the years.

Proudly Chinese SA

There has been a lot of foreign Chinese come to SA over the recent years. Apparently there are about 250,000 Chinese in SA now. There are a lot of Chinese shops that have opened, including the new Chinatown in Cyrildene.

The recent hate speech against Chinese really upset me. I hate generalisations. Just because abalone and tusks are exported to China, and some people in China eat strange things like dog doesn't mean all Chinese do it! I most certainly don't.

I am proudly South African and I am proudly Chinese.

So I founded Proudly Chinese SA, to promote our Chinese culture and promote Chinese individuals/businesses/organisations.


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