Shut up, Shealea

Hi there! I’m Tracy, a book blogger over at Truffle’s Literary Wonders and I am Mauritian (Chinese Mauritian/Sino Mauritian – Mauritian).

I come from a tiny little country in the middle of nowhere made up of various cultures but mostly stemming from China, India, Africa, and Europe. So, it’s a bit of a cocktail of cultures. Short story is, this little island was colonised by the French and then the English (after both the Portuguese and the Dutch ate all the Dodos — yes that’s where they come from — and decided to leave) and so they brought many slaves and workers from Africa, and many people from Asia came down to work there.

So, there are a lot of cultures there, and I happen to be mixed Chinese, where my father’s side is Mauritian Chinese and my mother’s side is mixed European and African. But I basically look like a mixed Asian because nobody can ever tell where I’m from. However, I now live in Australia.

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One of the first questions that strangers usually ask me when they meet me is, “Where are you from?” If I’m feeling cheeky or contrary, I shoot back, “Where do you think?”

I’ve gotten answers ranging from Colombia, Mexico, Lebanon, India (close), Pakistan (closer) and sometimes, when I’ve spoken Hindi in front of them and they’re Hindustani themselves, Fiji(-ian Indian… jackpot!) And if they know my last name (Khan) then they probably know my religion as well: Muslim. It’s something that comes up surprisingly little in conversations outside of my home. Although it’s an integral part of myself, it’s not written on my skin. Moreover, there’s no visible identifier because I don’t wear the hijab. However, it comes up in discussion when I talk about my dietary restrictions, holiday plans and the reason I avoid alcohol.

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To introduce myself, I’m Debbie and I’m biracial (or mixed-race/ethnicity) — Chinese and British. With two immigrant parents (kind of) — my mum being from Hong Kong and my Dad from Scotland (hence the kind of). Over the last few months I’ve seen influencers on various platforms talk about their Eastern Asian heritage and how it’s influenced their upbringing. However, it has mostly been from completely Asian influences (as in full Chinese/Korean/etc rather than mixed), so I was inspired to do the same but from the perspective of someone who’s mixed-race. In addition, I want to detail my past relationship with my heritage — why I ultimately love it — and also media representation of mixed-race characters.

As a disclaimer, I live in London and have done so all my life — meaning that I’ve been raised in a diverse culture, so racism isn’t quite so prevalent compared to other cities/areas. This means that, for obvious reasons, my experiences will differ a lot from other people; however, I’m sure there’ll be a lot of crossover which I’m going to touch on.

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Last February, I’ve been invited to do a live question-and-answer online session for writers and industry professionals. I received great questions, but the one that really made me think is the one who asked me about my thoughts about the lack of children’s literature tackling Philippine post-colonial themes.

For one, the asker’s observation was true — there really are very, very few children’s books that tackle this topic. For another, it’s actually a topic that I believe should be discussed. Not just by kids, not just by Filipinos, not just by Asians… But by everyone.

Colorism as a result of post-colonialism may seem difficult to understand if you’re looking in from outside the Filipino culture. But I believe otherwise. Because when you really think about it, it’s more a question of “are you willing to understand?” instead of “do you understand?”

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