Being Half and Half

I often ask myself, “Am I really Chinese?” When the criteria for judging is looks-based and ancestral lineage is also a vital basis, I can be 100% sure that the answer will be yes. But when beliefs, ideals and principle become the main gauge on being a real Chinese, I don’t think I can confidently give an affirmative answer.
Strictly speaking, I live in a traditional Chinese family. We eat Chinese food at home, we HAVE to speak Chinese, whether it be Madarin or Fookien, at home, we practice the ancient Chinese customs that have been there since my ancestors were in China.
I always thought that I was a real Chinese until I went to Beijing to study for 50 days. In these 50 days, I had language classes, Chinese calligraphy classes, Chinese History, Wushu class and also music class. In these classes, we not only got a chance to strengthen our grasp of the Chinese-Mandarin Language, but we also go to further understand Chinese culture. Here I felt this sudden shame; I felt that I didn’t understand my own culture enough. How can I call myself Chinese when I couldn't even tell which city was in the northernmost part or what did Sun Yat Sen actually do to earn his title as the National Hero. I didn’t know how many minority tribes composed the country or what the Chinese opera meant (or the types of Opera they have in China), and the list would go on and on.
Aside from all these classes we also went out to tour the different historical attractions located Beijing, namely: Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, BeiHai Park, Xiang Shan Botanical Gardens, Ba Da Chu park, and of course, the Great Wall of China.
During my stay in Beijing, I saw that there were a lot of people of different nationalities studying Mandarin at the school I was studying in. There were Koreans, Indonesians, Americans, German and there was also one student who came from the Philippines. It seems funny how these people all want to study the Chinese language and learn more about the Chinese culture, and overseas Chinese born here in the Philippines all try to do their best to stay at the lower grade levels in Chinese. Is it because their parents don’t make them feel the importance of knowing one’s own roots or is it because the society that the Filipino-Chinese live in is not that accepting of the Chinese culture enough for us to freely be ourselves and practice the culture that is uniquely ours. If I remember correctly, Chinese have always been a marginalized group, people used to think lowly of Chinese and there have been a lot of prejudice against the Chinese. I had a couple of classmates in university who always made fun of the Chinese culture. There was one who used to blabber in this Chinese accent…He was just talking nonsense, and it hurt since no one in our class could speak in straight Chinese except me. Obviously he was trying to get me to get mad. Honestly, I don’t really blame him for that. A lot of Filipino-Chinese nowadays can’t even speak Mandarin or Fookien fluently anymore. They don’t put much importance in studying the Chinese language or culture. Perhaps they think that just because they were born and bred in the Philippines makes them a Filipino. It is quite stupid for them to think that. Let’s say one day they go to China, people will still assume that they can speak Chinese since they look Chinese. Wouldn’t it just be embarrassing if they couldn’t answer?
Maybe then they would realize that it’s not a sin to be good in Chinese or that being Chinese means that you would be part of the “out” crowd.