Where West Meets East

Oops, I did it again! Once more, I failed to dress Joshua up for a particular special day - this time the last day of the "Where West Meets East Art Festival". You see, Joshua's school had devoted the entire week to this festival, holding exhibitions and a host of activites based on the West Meets East theme. And today, the kids and teachers were supposed to dress up in Asian costumes for a little street parade.

I knew about the festival and the street parade but somehow the part about asking parents to dress up their kids ala Asian style escaped me. I read everything attentioned to parents but somehow missed that part. I only found out about it yesterday.

Too late. I didn't bring Joshua's old Chinese New Year costume to Melbourne. So he went to school in his uniform. No big deal. He wasn't too concerned. Still, I had a suspicion he was going to stick up like a sorethumb in the midst of colourful Asian attire.

True enough, we saw all the little Gwai Lohs and Gwai Muis dressed like little Chinamen and China dolls here and there. There were those in kimonos and saris as well. Boy, these Aussies really take this sort of thing seriously. Only a handful of the kids came in their uniform. And the weirdest thing was, half of those "unadorned" kids were Asian!

Ha ha. Such irony. Joshua wasn't that alone after all! I guess we Asians have seen all this cultural thing and are just not that fascinated with it. Which begs the question - are we losing our touch as Asians?

Probably. Which is quite sad, actually. As is it, both Joshua and Joanne are showing signs of becoming real banana people. They speak Mandarin and Hakka (when they do decide to speak at al and this is becoming rare these days) with a funny accent.

I guess I'd better send them to Mandarin classes next year before they completely lose touch with their mother tongue and origin.