My team at work is especially “yellow-friendly”. Not only are there 3 chinese girls in a team of only c.20 bankers, but, of the remaining bankers, an italian senior is going out with a canadian chinese girl, a french moroccan junior is dating a chinese girl, an ex-senior (german) is married to a korean wife, and an ex-junior (french) had dated two chinese girls recently. We had christmas drinks at my boss’ house tonight, and I couldn’t help but be amused at how many chinese girls there would have been if all the 3 chinese bankers (one was ill) and the other halves had turned up. One could be entirely forgiven for being alarmist about “le peril jaune” of ‘evil slitty-eyed yellow people’ taking over and subverting Western culture, especially given I’m going out with a french boy and the second chinese banker is marrried to a german (the third chinese banker is single).

Although, having said that my team is yellow-friendly, in reality, my team is just extremely diverse and almost incidentally supportive of all sorts of “minorities”. We have an exceptionally high proportion of girls in our team vs. investment banking average; we are racially diverse (although we were even more so in the past); and there are many mixed couples in our team:
– danish/french + greek/irish
– french + british indian (and married against the wish of her parents who boycotted the wedding!!)
– german/iranian + english
– english + french
– chinese + german
– myself + french
– italian + canadian chinese
– french moroccan + chinese

That’s one thing I like about London – this exuberant mixing of cultures, nationalities and races. The openness and willingness to share, interact, intermarry, love, hate and mingle in joyous abandon. Those who come here tend to be sufficiently adventurous and open. London, as I mentioned before, is a port for dreamers, a gateway of dreams. – Well, at least it was before this silly super tax that is rapidly making us all reconsider our future plans.

Nonetheless, I sometimes almost wonder if there is too much mixing… isn’t it a shame that there will be no one who is culturally “pure” anymore. There’s something to be said for being able to say, unequivocally: “I am Chinese [or whatever]”, without feeling confused and conflicted, as many mixed-culture kids are, especially since life is confusing enough as it is. But, funnily enough, growing up, I remember thinking, even as a child, how boring it was that I was “pure Chinese”, that there was nothing much more to say besides both my grandparents were from China – no mixed parentage or deeper heritage to understand or explain. I guess that this was written, that I would end up going out with someone from a different culture, because I’ve always wanted to do and be, something a little bit different (although, as mentioned, inter-cultural relationships now seem to be the norm), and because I always thought that inter-culture relationships and marriages would contribute towards ending racism/prejudices/religious differences, and hence, a baby first step towards world peace. Yes, very “Miss Congeniality”, I know. But wanting some simple and naive, isn’t always a bad thing. In my book, it is called idealism or optimism.