Shu's video: Why I hated being Chinese growing up

Why I hated being Chinese as a child. I grew up in a tiny coastal village in England and was one of the only people of colour at school - so you can imagine what that was like in the 2000s.My parents spent most of their time working at our takeaway - often clocking in 12-16 hour days - so they never had a chance to socialise or make friends with parents outside of their community. And when it came to school lunches, my mum would thoughtfully prepare a lunchbox of my favourite dim sum: delicate steamed prawn dumplings, pan fried juicy pork ones and steamed fluffy baos, all of my favourites at home.I remember skipping in, swinging my lunchbox with glee and excitedly opening it up only to see the majority of kids peering in, pinching at their noses and jabbing their elbows at each other asking…What are those “weird things” you brought?Why does it smell so bad?Why don’t I have a sandwich like everybody else?The only person who didn’t was my best friend Hannah - she’d take one look and propose to swap her wagon wheels for my dumplings. We’ve been best friends (family) for 25 years now.It breaks my heart to think how I desperately tried to reject my heritage in order to assimilate and fit in with everybody else. But now as an adult, I couldn’t be more proud of who I am, the journey it took to get here and my cultural foods.Nothing makes me happier than introducing new friends to dim sum, hot pot and Cantonese dishes and seeing their faces light up when the flavours hit.It was my favourite lunch then and it’s still my favourite lunch now.