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Britishness II: Chinese Britons – The Lesser-Spotted Minority

Kevin Massy - 10/25/2005

Stratford seems an eminently fitting starting point for a foray into the psyche of modern Britain. With connotations of Shakespeare – the Sweet swan of Avon who extols through posterity the virtues of “this earth, this realm, this England” – there could be few more appropriate places to begin.

But a look at the postcode shows that this is not Stratford in Warwickshire with its thatched cottages and meandering streams; rather it is the far end of the Jubilee line in North-east London where crime is rife, and unemployment is nearly fifteen times the national average.

Richard Lam, a 40-year-old first generation Chinese British immigrant is the manager of the Stratford-based London Chinese Community Network (LCCN). His organisation works with the capital’s huge Chinese voluntary and community sector which in turn supports one-third of the UK’s entire Chinese population living in London.

Mr Lam appears in the bustling reception area at a canter – a slight man with a floppy Hugh Grant haircut, wearing a light grey suit and Burberry polo shirt.

His suggestion of a pub lunch at the King Edward VIII is perfectly appropriate to a discussion on British identity, but like the Burberry tartan, has the hint of one who might protest his Britishness too much.

Inside the pub flags of St George bedeck the walls in recognition of the European football championships and the giant television screens are displaying the Queen’s procession into Royal Ascot. The occasion starts to feel like some kind of parody of stereotypical British icons – all we need is Alf Garnett and a plate of…

“Fish and chips,” says Mr Lam after a glance at the 2-for-£6 menu.

I feel the urge to look around for Jeremy Beadle in a Beefeater’s outfit.

As we wait for the microwave to weave its magic, Mr Lam recounts his story. Born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents he first came to the UK as an undergraduate studying in Darlington. He says his brother and sister were sacrificed in order that his parents could afford to give him an overseas education.

“When I came to the UK as a student I forced myself to integrate,” he says. “Many of my Chinese friends there didn’t even bother to learn English and they returned to Hong Kong immediately after their degree.”

Although he too returned to Hong Kong to work for a Chinese television company, he came back to the UK in 1995 and has been here ever since, working variously in the commercial and public sector. Having lived here for nearly ten years, Mr Lam considers himself to be a British citizen but says that he has reservations about the concept of Britishnness – not least the word itself:

“Once you say British, people automatically think of the pub, and the Queen, white people and the middle classes,” he says. “There is a colonial, racist element to the word, and connotations of superpower. The United Kingdom, Great Britain – these words lead people to prejudge this kind of debate before it begins.”

As well as the terms used to describe the nation as a whole, he sees the way in which people are labelled internally as divisive and problematic.

“When British people talk about minorities they instinctively think of the Indian or Afro-Caribbean communities. The Chinese British population – which is truly a minority – is often overlooked,” he says.

Although he is technically a first generation immigrant, Mr Lam sees a great difference between himself and the Chinese immigrants of the 1960 and 1970s, who were mostly semi-skilled people without much support or many rights, the majority of whom ended up working in the restaurant industry.

“If you ask them how they see themselves, they will say Chinese, they will say that their blood is Chinese, and they don’t want it to be diluted by living in the UK.”

He believes that this attitude has not been passed on to the second generation, who accept more readily the dilution of their Chinese heritage, and the idea that their Chinese blood is not as thick as their parents. He even acknowledges a trend among some second generation Chinese to act “whiter than white”, and he gives the example of a Chinese friend who speaks in an English public school accent and refuses to use Cantonese.

Yet despite this generation being ready to embrace British culture, he thinks that general acceptance of the Chinese community in Britain is still very low.

“There is no way that this country will turn into a multicultural society without non-white people asserting themselves through commercial channels,” he says. “For example, would you notice the Chinese community in this country if there were no Chinese restaurants?”

Mr Lam maintains that the situation of the British Chinese will only improve through “long-term integration”, rather than the arbitrary Britishness tests being introduced by the government, or citizenship ceremonies attended by prince Charles, which he denounces as “a farce”. Instead, he suggests a model of multiculturalism and integration similar to that in Canada which welcomes about 150,000 new citizens each year, without the determinant of national or economic immigration quotas.

On the issue of nationhood and nationalism, he is resolved that the process of globalization will soon break down the ignorance which he says underpins much of the current popular thinking on sovereignty and national identity.

“The world is smaller today than it has ever been, and to stick with this concept of a fixed UK or British identity is out of date. Look at the example of Diana’s death – even the American people felt that they were British.”

Rather than an overarching national identity –what the politicians call a “core of Britishness” – Mr Lam thinks that people should define themselves more accurately with the UK at local level.

“I think its easier if you adopt a region,” he says. “To say ‘I’m a Mancunian’ or ‘I’m a Londoner’ is far more relevant to the situation in this country. People who live in London – irrespective of their ethnic origin – have more in common with each other than those who live in Darlington for example.”

Having sounded nationalism’s death knell however, he admits that last year he went to the Last Night of the Proms- arguably the UK’s most bombastic showcase of national pride.

Although he wore a Hong Kong tee-shirt instead of waving a Union Jack, he freely admits that he sang along at full volume to the likes of Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory.

So, when he sang I vow to thee my country, did he have the UK in mind? Did he mean what he said about making the “final sacrifice” for his adopted country?

“If you become part of a country, you become part of it as a citizen,” he replies. “If I had to go to war, I would do it as a citizen not as [a member of] a race - you have a duty to your country of citizenship. If you contribute to and benefit from a country, then you belong there.”

It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s pretty poetic all the same.