Last Sunday at St. Baaf’s Ghent, a complete stranger walked up to me and said “China looks upon your face”. In which I replied “I’m not Chinese”. He didn’t hear me. He had walked off by the time I thought of an adequate response.

I really wonder what he meant by that remark. Does my Chinese looking face automatically make me a representative of the Chinese race? Or did he mean China the country? China looks upon me and then what? Maybe he meant to say Europe instead of China…which would make more sense, no?

I am 3rd generation Malaysian. My parents have yet to see China. My grandparents chose to migrate from China to South East Asia in the early 30s and settled down for life. My national language is Bahasa Malaysia. I know English because we were taught the International Language in school and because my country was once a British colony. I learned Chinese Mandarin up till age 12 because mom can’t bear it otherwise.

In America, I am just another Asian person. I do not get looked at differently, especially in California and Nevada. When I speak English, I have a strange accent that my American friends find comical and endearing at the same time. We laughed at how I pronounce certain words. But that’s about it. I am nothing unusual in the US.

Here in Belgium, I was told several times by different people that Dutch is a very difficult language. On the other hand, I was told I have very good English. And most Belgians find it amazing that I know Chinese. In Belgium, I get weird lingering looks from strangers.

In Belgium, I am a foreigner.