So Gong Li recently became a Singaporean citizen–and people in China are completely freaking out. Online dialogue about her decision has been downright nasty. One person wrote, “Traitors like this don’t even love their own country. These people were only fake countrymen of ours. Let them slink off to other countries and die!”
Another wrote, “All traitors will be nailed to history’s mast of shame. We should resolutely reject any further contact with such people.”
Um, seriously?? Calm down, people. Geez. That’s psycho ex-boyfriend talk.
Maybe its just me. I don’t think 3rd culture kids ever really “get” the whole patriotism thing. Even my passport sparks confused questions that I don’t quite know how to answer:
“Oh you’re British?”
“No, its a Hong Kong passport that looks like a British passport. You know, British colony…”
“Weren’t you born in England though?”
“Yeah, but… um… I dunno, they wouldn’t let me be British. Damn Brits.”
“Wait, isn’t Hong Kong part of China now?”
“Yeah…”
“So you’re from China?”
“Uh, not really… but kind of, I guess.”
Yeah, you get the point. Totally confusing. But I think there’s something to be said of not taking this nationalism thing too seriously. I think there’s such thing as a healthy sense of national pride, as well as an unhealthy (and often scary) kind of blind patriotism. And from what I’ve read and seen, a lot of Chinese people tend to be on extreme end of the spectrum.
… or maybe that’s unpatriotic of me to say.
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