close relationship with and as he
boarded the ship for the three-week cost
crossing back to malaysia he knew that
he’d fallen in love he knew it in every
bone in his body this would lead to
marry later joining James in Malaysia
James had been studying law in London he
was the son of Lohan glue who was a
teacher in Malaysia who’d migrated from
China at 14 years old on a ship to
Malaysia to look for work Mary was
persuaded to join James in Malaysia
through letters and they married they
enjoyed the hustle and bustle of what is
now known as kuala lumper they enjoyed
the possum Alan’s the night markets with
all the haggling over silks and spices
the lush plants growing inch by inch
every minute and they enjoyed being
together walking along the streets and
seeing the mosques the temples and the
churches side by side but Mary longed
for her family back in England and so
without James she made the three-week
crossing back to England on board ship
she fell violently ill she had terrible
stomach pains sure high temperature and
arriving back into England she found
herself in hospital wired up to monitors
she thought that he was serendipity that
it was a Chinese doctor that delivered
her baby who’s she named pani po yoke I
was born with a head full of black spiky
hair and in London my mother held me
close to her chest as she carried me
through the streets where keep wit
Britain white posters were being
plastered all over the place but soon
she decided that we must move to the
burton-on-trent there was nothing around
me Chinese there was nobody non-white at
school apart from at junior school there
was one girl of Jamaican girl I can’t
remember her name but I do remember the
other children shouting at me we don’t
want no Malay kids here I wasn’t even
Malay the only Chinese thing that there
was was a Chinese room that my mother
had created people didn’t have lots of
things then like they do now but she’d
been to an auction she’d brought a
Chinese rug some sort paintings on the
walls and we had this Chinese picnic
basket that my grandfather lohan galloon
had sent to me from Malaysia when I went
to secondary school things weren’t much
different there was just one indian girl
but everybody laughed at her for eating
curry I don’t tell them about the
Chinese dishes that my mother cooked at
home that she’d learnt in Malaysia what
was the point at school in home
economics it was just all meat and
potato pie and jam roly-poly pudding
when I went to university things did
begin to change there were students from
different parts of the world not lots
but just a few but when I got speaking
to them they thought that you should
have both parents from the same race I
decided to go to asian cultural evenings
but somehow china and malaysia didn’t
seem to be in asia anymore it was when
I’d love to universe
and I got my first job it coincided with
me moving to pitts more and I was so
warmed to see the people from all around
to the world living around me there was
many years later I got a job for got a
job with the local green city action to
engage the multicultural community in
environmental education it was spring
the time of chinese new year so i
decided to organize the Chinese lion
dance in RB Philip Ark hundreds of
people came and as the lion was rising
in the air and diving to the ground and
the symbols were crashing and the drum
was beating I had a quake through me as
I thought of my Chinese family all the
way over in Malaysia and here I was
standing in my homes homes placed in
pits more in my Park celebrating my
culture and then I looked around me and
thought of all the people all around the
park from lots of different parts of the
world and that’s when the abbeyfield
Park multicultural festival was born I’d
heard that if you knocked on the door of
the Sikh temple you would always be let
in so I knocked on the door a man in a
white turban and a big black beard
answered the door and I said hello I’m
pani low from Green City action and I’d
like to set up a multicultural festival
would you like to get involved and they
let me in there there was loads of seat
people around me talking excitedly about
what they could do in the festival it
was the same when I went to the Hindu
temple then Churches Together wanted to
get involved and many many organizations
from around the pits more area there
wasn’t long to organize the festival
just a few months but nobody was more
surprised
than me when thousands of people turns
up in a refill park there was in Barbie
and dances that lit the stage alight
Irish dances in brightly jeweled
costumes ran across the grass there’s
black women drummers purchase dancers
were getting everybody holding hands and
dancing in a circle there was hip hop
there was Reggie there was English tea
and cakes it was pakora there was
Bhangra there was salsa and so much more
and as I was pushing through the crowds
a little girl stopped me and she looked
up at me and she said you came to speak
at our school my mum’s Jamaican and my
dad’s English I looked at her and I said
that’s wonderful and we smiled like that
little girl I’m a child born out of
difference and like many of you here
today I celebrate difference but I not
only celebrate difference i implement
difference i see this is born out of the
fact that i’m a dual heritage and it’s
given me a unique perspective to see
things for multiple perspectives and
this happens every time I put pens paper
paint paint brush to canvas I see things
in this way on whether you’re an artist
a scientist a business person a public
servant i invite you to not only
celebrate difference but to implement
difference because together we can make
a more vibrant exciting / he civ and
tolerant world not only celebrate difference but implement difference