Why I call Chinese Language as my 'Father' Language..
Because I'm in fact chinese.. ;DI have Chinese Name, just called me Chen Xiao Jie.. 陈小姐。
Many chinese in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and others. In history, where the World Ward II begun, many Chinese who didn't want to participate in war, decided to flee from the country and move to other country. My friends said, they went to some ship, didn't know exactly where they went, as long as they can flee the country and the war. Two of them, are my grandfather and grandmother.
I don't know the chinese roots from my mother, since my mom don't tell me much about it. But I know strongly from my father. My last name, my face, and in fact, I still have my family there.
I have cousins living in Hong Kong. And a lot still live in place, where my ancestor lived.. Hahaha..
I must dig the photo from my family photo album collection. I visit the city about 4 years ago. In fact, I am GuangDong people 广东人。And do you know what they popular of? They eat everything, from snake to dog.
My family from MeiXian 梅县，Mei Zhou 梅州
My family went there with my cousin's family, there was chinese tradition, where we went to the oldest family, to give the photo of my passed grandmother to the main house, so all family can pray every year. The "Main House", my dad told me is where my ancestor were living. You can see, the photo from you great great great grandfather and so on.. My Ancestor was from small county, located on MeiXian, where you still can see rice field on left and right.
After that, we have family lunch together, and they serve all 10 dishes to welcome their guests (another tradition). One of them was dog meat, and it was served in front of me and my cousin, who in fact were drooling of the food. Luckily, we ask first, what kind of meat that was. And you can see the face of the parents, when my chinese family told them. And i know it was not "ordinary" food.
It was so different!! The culture and the face. I mean, everything. I cant really feel connected with them, even we are connected with blood, and same last name. My father was born in Jakarta, and also my aunt, and rest of us. They were born in China. We speak Indonesian since born, my Dad and Aunt still can speak Chinese, but I don't know if they can speak Hakka or not.
And you know, Chinese Family usually have many children. We went to my Father's Oldest Sister Family there. She has passed away, we met her children or my cousins. They were in fact, as old as my Dad. One of them, already have grandson. Yes, My own Nephew already have son. I have two nephew who already became doctors. So funny...!! Where in Indonesia, my niece and nephew from my cousins was still baby.
I visited once, but I never remember the name and the location. Just after I learned that not all china people eat the 'not ordinary' food as we thought ( or as I thought ) before. My teachers all told me ( because they are north china people ), just south china people 南方人 who eat that "not ordinary" food, especially Guang Dong. And one day, I asked my father, and he said. well we are Guang Dong People. I just can laugh about it.
We don't have the strong chinese tradition anymore, my family don't. We just Celebrated Chinese New Year. That's it.. I know others Indonesian Chinese Family in Indonesia still celebrated and have strong chinese tradition, but my family don't. From 5 members of my family, just my Dad can speak Chinese, and me still learning. My Mom, my 2nd brother can't speak at all. My First brother can speak a little, since he learned once and right now he has fiance who speak chinese everyday with her families.
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Indonesian Language is my first language or my mother tongue.
Chinese Language is my "Father" Language, or my third language. (since English is my 2nd language).
And all of my life, I hate Chinese Language, but here I am, learning it, because simply can't denied the roots, the bloods, or the fact that chinese language now 2nd most used language, and China is climbing to the top number one country in the world.
