Two Identities

People have multiple identities in this world, everyone plays a different role in the society. In this blog I am going to talk about my two important identities. I am a Brazilian born Chinese. In my lifetime I have lived in these two countries. There are many differences in being a Chinese and a Brazilian. First of all, it is the culture. Ones follows a western culture and another is the eastern culture. Brazil is a western culture with more flexibility and freedom. As a student I could see this big difference between China and Brazil. In China, due the fact, of overpopulation student are required to study a lot and everyone follows the test system in which who has the highest score is more intelligent than the lowest. Therefore, the atmosphere in the class is tense and is rare the interaction between student to student and student to professor in the classroom. As a Chinese student my goal was to be the number one in the school and gain respect with good scores. In contrast, Brazil the classroom is much free and happier. Student has a good and friendly relationship with most of the professors. In Brazil besides the test scores, the education system tests group working, creativity, and critical thinking. Therefore, I changed my mind after some years in Brazil. I did not want to be number one. However, it does not means that I do not want to be. It is just that being number one is not longer that important to me. Second, it is the food. As I said before, these two countries have a enormous differences. Then, the food cannot be the same. China cuisine is one of the most complexes in the world. North, south, east, west they all have different preference for food. For example, people who is from the north side prefer more flour food, such as, noodle and dumplings. On another hand, people who came from the south prefer more rice and traditional food with soup. I really love some food in China, but there are some dishes that I cannot accept in eating, such as, the dog meat. However, in Brazil people almost eat the exactly same thing. Of curse there are many specialities in some area of Brazil that is unique, but most of the people eat a beef steak, rice, beans(black beans, and pinto beans cooked with salty pork meat) and a simple salad using vinegar, olive oil, and salt as seasoning. Brazilian food for me is all about the meat. If the meat is good the entire meal will be good as well. In addition, these two countries has a very interesting thing about sports. Brazil is known by the world best soccer players and five time world championship. Brazil also is famous in volleyball and handball. These three sport is all group sports that create a spirit of union. At the same time, China is very good in the individual sports. table tennis and shooting are some of examples. In my opinion, because of the huge pressure that chines have since they were a child most of them like to work alone resulting more in good performances in individual sports. In sum, I like both of the culture, food and sport. I am glad that I have experiences this two extreme countries identities in my life and I am more than proud to say that I posses this two identities.