Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (250 -650 words)


It is not uncommon these days to see Asians which have immigrated into New Zealand. My parents were a part of the first generation to immigrate here for work, and as a result, my position here is as the second generation of Chinese people who were born and raised in New Zealand.


I grew up learning English and Chinese alongside each other; my mother had initially told me that she didn’t speak English so that I had to speak Chinese at home. Since my mother was full time in work and my father was never home (which eventually lead to their divorce) it was actually largely up to our renters to teach me several important life skills. Thinking back on it, I really appreciate how good willed those people were. I was drilled by them in stereotypical Asian fashion; I was made to practice repeatedly in areas until I perfected them. English and Chinese were two of the key ones; I was made to memorise short stories and copy out the transcripts until they were perfected, as well as recite them with acceptable pronunciation. In addition to this, I was also taught in several areas they considered necessary for etiquette in China; chopsticks, in particular was a key point of focus. The renter devised a system whereupon I had to move objects from one bowl to another until they were all transferred, starting with chess pieces then finally progressing to marbles. After daily practice, I eventually mastered the use of chopsticks.


My social circles in primary school were largely Asian; I was a star pupil due to the preschool education Asian students often get, and was often made to take care of other Chinese students who could not take care of themselves. However as my mum was at work full time, I had to go to after school care until she was available to pick me up. Here, I was more prone to engaging with the Caucasian students, as I enjoyed playing sports and it was more often that they would be the ones to engage in physical activity. During the beginning of highschool, I was in the second highest stream of academics, but the social circles I spent breaks with were mostly Caucasians who were from lower streams. At the time, the more active breaks appealed to me, although over subsequent years I made friends with the Asians too and now enjoy more relaxed lunchtimes rather than the fast paced ones before.


In my final three years of highschool, I decided I wanted to get more in touch with my ethnic roots in school; represent the Chinese community a bit more. Thus I joined the Chinese Cultural Group as well as the Korean Cultural Group. CCG was quite a large event, the venue in which it was performed in costing over five thousand dollars. KCG, while on a smaller scale still sold up to one thousand tickets. Having begun in Year 11 (Australian equivalent of year 10) in the CCG Media group (in charge of design, promotion, filming, social media etc), I eventually became leader in 2016, as well as founding the KCG Media group for 2016. Thus, my social circles expanded to those who were adept in design, photography and film editing as such. In addition to this, I was a part of the CCG Drama group in my last two years at school. This, I feel, was a great boost to my confidence once I had abandoned more of my reserved persona, and learnt how to have a stage presence as well as improving my social skills. Drama was a very close group, akin to that of a second family, and my only regret is not having joined it earlier. That can only be attributed to my someone shy character in previous years, and it was only in a spontaneous will to try something entirely new, that I had signed up for drama.