THEY'RE PROBABLY NICE PEOPLE, BUT I'M NOT

It's been a long time since my ex and I broke up. After it happened, rather than blaming her or getting bent out of shape, I did the mature thing and moped. Which, naturally, one should do; it's healthy and therapeutic or something. I was also bitter that she had always been scared to be seen around Chinatown with me -- she's Cantonese, I'm white, and you already knew that -- for fear that some home-town nosey parker would report back to her elderly mother that the daughter was seeing a kwailo.
As the "foreign" element, I was the non-person.
Chinese can be frightful racists that way.

But you know something?

I'm over it.


We went out for dimsum just ONCE during our relationship of several years. Since then I've had dimsum far more often by myself than during my entire previous life. Dimsum in the Chinese context is often a group thing, several people go out and share eaties and tea. But I'm white, stubborn, and a bit of a loner, and I'm fine doing that by myself.
I can smoke my pipe afterwards while wandering around.
Really, I'm not a very social person.
I don't like groups.

Dimsum tastes better as a snack than as a sustained assault with several friends or relatives on all the goodies being wheeled out of the kitchen in a loud crowded environment. The hustle and bustle of a popular tea restaurant can be bothersome, irritating even. Lunch should be enjoyed, rather than becoming an endurance test or competitive event.
I don't like buffets for the same reason.
Hunger games.
Bah.



I never ate with her relatives, never even met them. If we had gone out for dimsum, I probably would've dropped my chopsticks, and later said that it had been fun, and please let us never do that again.




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