I was born in Hong Kong. My mother is Chinese, she was from Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong to escape The communist rule. She met my father in Hong Kong, who was working there at the time. He was from Australia. Then he moved back to his main office in Sydney so we moved there too. I was three at the time.

My older brother who is ten years my senior was a big influence on me so I still have a lot of knowledge of Hong Kong and it’s culture. It was and sometimes still is a place where East meets West. Hong Kong just like me is of mixed culture. And like me we understand each culture significantly, deeply and love them both with a passion. Yet we can never fit in to either culture. There is bitterness on both sides there is a huge gulf between each that just cannot be crossed at this point in time.

I understand Asian culture, the group based culture, where the individual does things for the good of the group. I understand the western culture of doing well for yourself. Yet by themselves they can never achieve greatness. Groups can do well but will stagnate, they need individual flare to push the group along yet when they do, they are either punished or they forget to pull the group along they become lost. The individual however lacks the power of the group and so can not get too far before they are overwhelmed. In the west they praise the individual but they forget that the group got them there.

I have tried teaching people the amalgamation of the individual with the group but it’s too ingrained into them, that I cannot even make them budge. I just follow along but can never really be a part of there group, or their individuality. I, like Hong Kong, can neither be part of their culture or be one of them.

I can only seek like minded people to try and restore order to this world. China wants to be Emperor of the world. The West is tearing itself apart because of perceived wrongs by others. There only two possibilities that will come from this, we got to war and wipe each other out, or we put our differences on the table and admire them cherish them because it is our differences that make us who we are and the things that are the same is what binds us together.

I come from two cultures born into both love both and cherish the differences that they have to offer and yet I can never be a part of either one. For there is too much bitterness held on each side.

Look at those around you and then take a look at those from a far. What do you really think about them all? If you feel bitter then you must look inside you for why you feel that way, they are not the cause of your failings. If your eyes light up and feel wonder at their differences then you have achieved the first level of enlightenment.

So until next time Stay Safe, Stay Cool and be enlightened and cherish your culture most profoundly.