Another sentimental post (probably self-therapy or somethun. I dunno)
I try not to think like this most of the time.... but it is, again, July 1st: the day that the British handed over Hong Kong to the Chinese government. It has been 10 years since, so what else can you expect from your friendly neighbourhood China-man? :P
I direct you to the following news article from CNN.com about Hong Kong returnees. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/06/hk.returnees/index.html If you've read any posts here before, the article pretty much summarizes the mixed phenomenons I try to describe about myself, and fellow Hong Kong emigrants: Astronaut parents and satellite kids. Returning back to the city. Romanticising Western life/education over the rigid Eastern one. Reverse culture shock. The question of home. The mentality of an eternal drifter.
If I had been born a few years earlier, then probably the idea of studying abroad would have fit snugly with my parents' decision to go abroad. Most likely then, I would've finished college in the US, returned to Hong Kong, and try to readapt back into the environment... instead, I had the lucky chance to re-emigrate from the city, etc. etc. etc. And now that college is over, medical school will start in Indiana... give that 4 years, then residency... so I will have roughly had 10 years worth of stay in the US. THEN I will have another chance of returning back to Hong Kong.
It's a situation that can be easily romanticized: 6 years of growing conscious, 10 years in Hong Kong, 10 years in the US. What will be the choice to settle down?
Right now, the obvious answer is the United States. Despite my whinings, I like this culture. I've changed in America; it made me stronger, helped me finalize my decision to become a doctor. The only obstacle to this decision is doubt. What if I become so jaded by American society, that I want to leave once I'm done with education here? What if my parents get sick sometime in the future?
I'm hoping that the current challenges to my psyche/identity helps me in the long run. Nothing else soldifies beliefs or values, quite like the displacement of self among different types of environments. I'm not sure what that prior sentence implies, but what the hay. I'm lucky enough as it is, but I just want to stop drifting around so much. I want to settle down, serve people, have kids and tell them my story: "Your daddy came from a strange place in a strange time, but that doesn't mean anything in America..."
I direct you to the following news article from CNN.com about Hong Kong returnees. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/06/hk.returnees/index.html If you've read any posts here before, the article pretty much summarizes the mixed phenomenons I try to describe about myself, and fellow Hong Kong emigrants: Astronaut parents and satellite kids. Returning back to the city. Romanticising Western life/education over the rigid Eastern one. Reverse culture shock. The question of home. The mentality of an eternal drifter.
If I had been born a few years earlier, then probably the idea of studying abroad would have fit snugly with my parents' decision to go abroad. Most likely then, I would've finished college in the US, returned to Hong Kong, and try to readapt back into the environment... instead, I had the lucky chance to re-emigrate from the city, etc. etc. etc. And now that college is over, medical school will start in Indiana... give that 4 years, then residency... so I will have roughly had 10 years worth of stay in the US. THEN I will have another chance of returning back to Hong Kong.
It's a situation that can be easily romanticized: 6 years of growing conscious, 10 years in Hong Kong, 10 years in the US. What will be the choice to settle down?
Right now, the obvious answer is the United States. Despite my whinings, I like this culture. I've changed in America; it made me stronger, helped me finalize my decision to become a doctor. The only obstacle to this decision is doubt. What if I become so jaded by American society, that I want to leave once I'm done with education here? What if my parents get sick sometime in the future?
I'm hoping that the current challenges to my psyche/identity helps me in the long run. Nothing else soldifies beliefs or values, quite like the displacement of self among different types of environments. I'm not sure what that prior sentence implies, but what the hay. I'm lucky enough as it is, but I just want to stop drifting around so much. I want to settle down, serve people, have kids and tell them my story: "Your daddy came from a strange place in a strange time, but that doesn't mean anything in America..."