branhow.com

I have spent a lot of time reflecting and contemplating certain aspects of my family; some of these concerns have stemmed from some areas that I have encountered or experienced since doing ministry abroad and eventually moving abroad. But one of the biggest questions I have dealt with in my own adult life is a sense of belonging and identity. There have been seasons in life where the community or sense of belonging was much greater than other times, and now I seem to be in a season of building another sense of community.

My children are equally in a precarious situation where they are caught between two identities, one of which is being an American and the other is being Chinese. I have seen this type of third culture kid not really being accepted by either identity group, and eventually they form another third quasi-like culture of the two cultures they are trying to represent. There were moments in Mainland China were I would hear children call my boys foreigners, even though they were born in China and whose mother is also Chinese. It broke my heart many times that they are not seen as being American and Chinese, whether we were in the USA or living here in China. Since coming to Macau and now Hong Kong, I have seen a greater willingness to accept them for who they are as being biracial kids. That being said, I have been wanting Noah to get more fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese. His English is the stronger of the three languages, but his Mandarin is definitely quite strong also. He does not have a strong competence in Cantonese and is very similar in level with me, mostly knowing a lot of phrases and words. Recently, a colleague of mine reached out and told us about a Cantonese language competition that he could take part in to help him develop more in Cantonese proficiency. While he did not win the competition, he did manage to make it to the final round and received a Certificate of Merit for the outstanding performance that he did. I wanted to share with you all the success and progress that he has had with his Cantonese since coming to Hong Kong, so I have attached the video before for you all to watch if your interested.

Noah did a short rendition of Noah’s Ark from Genesis in Cantonese, and to be honest, he really surprised me. I am tremendously proud of him, and he really is such an amazing young boy. While our journey here in Hong Kong has not been the easiest, compared to Macau, Noah has had more opportunities to grow in these cultural areas that he would not be able to have had in Macau. I know that this season in our lives is to help Daniel and Jonah also develop that language proficiency in Cantonese/ Mandarin. I just pray that the Lord will continue to guide him, grant him grace/ mercy, and give me the wisdom in helping Noah to be shaped more into a mighty man of God.

~ by branhow on May 15, 2025.

Posted in Archived, Hong Kong, Personal
Tags: asia, biracial family, biracial kid, China, Hong Kong, third culture kid, travel