11 October  2007

Occasionally, in conferences as well as daily life, serendipity can lead you to pleasant destinations you weren’t originally planning to visit.

Such was the case when a slot that had originally been intended as an insight into writing in China became transformed into a cultural interchange with a 27-year-old Hong Kong Chinese student, Bonnie Fong, due to the unforeseen absence of the scheduled author.

Moderated by French author Irène Frain, the exchange evolved with one the themes under examination being the nature of identity in a globalised world.

Fong’s own personal history could be taken as emblematic of a generation where national or cultural identity is no longer something to be taken for granted. She was sent by her parents to boarding school in the UK when she was ten, ahead of the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese. A native Cantonese speaker, she was barely able to speak English when she arrived, but went on to spend the next 12 years in England. Subsequently, she moved back to Hong Kong and, after spending a period of months in Beijing, then moved to France at the beginning of 2007.

Despite her travels and the fact she’s a British passport holder, Fong feels herself to be 100% Chinese: “It’s a feeling you have inside. I have a British passport, but when I wake up in the morning, I’m Chinese, when I see myself in the mirror, I’m Chinese, and the values I have are Chinese.”

That sense is deeply felt, in spite of being sent as a child to boarding school and spending long periods away from her family. Fong attested to the fact that family ties constitute a major part of what make up “Chinese” values.

Responding to a question from the audience about what “Chinese values” mean in a business context, Fong identified loyalty as a key component, even in circumstances when this loyalty might not appear to make good economic sense. But does loyalty equal trust?

“In my opinion, loyalty is part of trust. But trust doesn’t simply involve loyalty – it also involves confidence in someone else and the ability to rely on someone by taking some sort of risk.”

Frain picked up on Fong’s suggestion that French people are reluctant to embrace globalisation, and put it to Fong that maybe this was because French people don’t want to feel like foreigners in their own land. In essence, could globalisation lead to people feel foreign everywhere?

Fong’s view was that globalisation was not going to stop, and pointed out that “some people enjoy the feeling of being a foreigner.”

Maybe, but was she one of these people? Well, despite the fact she felt herself to be 100% Chinese, Fong admitted that, having grown up abroad she felt a foreigner when in Beijing,. “That explains why I so want to be back in Asia after my MBA - I want to be integrated.”

So, wondered Frain, would Fong embrace the concept that patriotism is one of the pillars of Chinese society? When the Beijing Olympics come around, would she drink champagne to celebrate if Chinese athletes won all the gold medals? “Of course,” replied Fong,  “I want to support the French economy!”