Like myself – my partner “Gee” – was born in the Mainland UK (England) and our families are proud to be “British”, “English” and “Chinese”. This is our reality. However, as “Socialists” we refuse to abide by Bourgeois ideology that sets different branches of the International Working-Class (see ‘All Quiet On The Front’) against one another premised upon false (racially-led) notions of ‘nationalism’.
Therefore, we reject Bourgeois notions of ‘nationalism’ – whilst recognising the ‘International’ identity of the Working-Class! It is a resounding irony that whilst Gee delivers hundreds of babies within the British NHS – many of the parents of those babies actively work to have Gee expelled from the UK premised entirely on her bodily differences – whilst simultaneously welcoming in to the UK thousands of Chinese ‘criminals’ who recently participated in the US-derived riots in Hong Kong! These are just some of the dialectical paradoxes that we live within.
In 1993, the British Education System geared-up to explain to British children “why” it was that the island of Hong Kong belonged to the UK – and why it was that Britain had to “give” this ‘Colony’ (and subsequently ‘Protectorate’) back to the Mainland Government of China. This was in the context of former British colonies being given their ‘Independence’ long before the British domination of Hong Kong came to an end. Of course, in some British schools there existed ethnic Chinese children whose parents were born in the New Territories and Island of Hong Kong during its time as a “Colony” – and who possessed ‘British Citizenship’ when they arrived in the Mainland UK. Being born in the UK – Gee is both “British” and “English” (whilst remaining ethnically “Chinese”) – but her parents and grandparents were born in the New Territories and possessed “British Citizenship when they arrived (a process which unfolded between 1956-1966).
What many people do not know is that Thatcher (during the 1980s) withdrew automatic British Citizenship for ethnic Chinese people in Hong Kong – once it became clear that Hong Kong would be given back to China in 1997. This was to placate the British right-wing which feared ‘hoards’ of Chinese people heading to the UK to escape the so-called ‘Red Menace’! Instead, the incumbent Tory government actually sneaked 10,000 prominent Hong Kong Chinese people into the UK – re-settling these families in Milton Keynes – from where they were quietly filtered into mainstream British society.
These people were rich, or held high Police or Military positions under the British Imperialist System. As the British media was forbidden to report on this Tory policy – many ordinary people in the UK remains unaware of it. Whilst this policy privileging certain ethnic Chinese people in British Hong Kong – thousands of Hong Kong Chinese living in the UK ‘lost’ their British Citizenship under Thatcher’s reform – and were summarily ‘expelled’ from the UK. Many of these people were our friends and were hard-working individuals. What you see here, is a School Project that Gee produced whilst a young girl in Sutton – whose parents came from Hong Kong and who possessed large family groupings still living in Hong Kong! This all goes to show that modern individuals can (and do) have to accommodate many different strands of identity that can appear “contradictory” to those brain-washed into thinking that only ‘this’ or ‘that’ limited way of thinking must be correct!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 