Singapore's Chinatown

Pictures from Chinatown around Chinese New Year

Rotary and Home Nursing Foundation Hamper Donation

Chinese New Year is a big event around these parts. Lots of decorations and celebratory parties take place. Often, it's family centered and families take off time from work for the entire week to celebrate. I personally have been indulging in the mandarin oranges that have been on sale.

Many Rotary clubs during this time of the year take time to donate and visit elderly people who for many reasons are alone. I assume this is similar to the elderly alone for the Christmas holidays in America.

My host Rotary Club and I participated in a hamper distribution project with the Home Nursing Foundation this past weekend. Dropping off goods and food to at home patients that are incapacitated allowed me to see a different side of Singapore and also talk to nurses who have befriended and take care of these people.

The picture above are some members of my host club and nurses of the Home Nursing Foundation before we left to drop off the goods.

Identity crisis?

Since I've been in Singapore, so many people have tried to guess my ethnicity and I think I've been asked if I was every asian nationality. Here's a list of countries people think I'm from:

- Malaysia
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Korea
- China

I think most people have asked me if I'm Korean, which surprises me cause I have never been assumed to be Korean in the US. It's mostly when I travel out of Singapore when people start guessing I'm from Japan or Korea. I've come to respond to these ethnicity questions with "I'm American, but I'm Chinese." Which isn't too definitive in and of itself (my roommate laughs when I use this response), but I guess neither are the ethnic and cultural identities I personally identify with.