Listening to: Steven Curtis Chapman - Cinderella
via FoxyTunes
----------------
Just yesterday, during dinner, my cousin's daughter asked me what rojak is (she was referring to the food). My brother answered her with "Y-O-U". True she was, with her parents & grandparents being of different races. This brought me to realise that I too was of "mixed blood", although when people asked me if I was pure Chinese, I'd always say yes (because both my parents are classified as Chinese).
A few days ago, my family and I went to a relative's house for a CNY lunch. I had always thought that she was my mother's (first) cousin. Only when I got there and saw a few pictures did her brother tell me that my mother's grandmother and their grandmother were sisters, making them my mother's second cousins. I also found out that my great grandmother's mother was the Siamese gunslinger, who is so famously known in our family. From the picture I saw in the house, my great grandmother & great grandaunt were wearing kebaya & sarong, the traditional Baba Nyonya clothing. My mum said that they were Baba Nyonya's, which meant that their father was from a Baba Nyonya family. This is my mother's father's side of the family.
My mother's mother was from a Baba Nyonya family. I always liked listening to my mother, aunts & uncles when they told us stories of when they were young, when my grandparents were still around, when my grandmother & her sisters would play mahjong and scold those around them in Malay/Hokkien when they lost in the game.
I would have loved to meet my grandparents but unfortunately there's no way of doing that.
My father's side is very simple. My ancestors from his side of the family are purely Chinese from China.
So, the mixed blood that I have in my veins are those of Chinese, Baba Nyonya & Siamese.
