Chinese by blood, Kenyan by heart | KELLY ZHU | TEDxYouth@BrookhouseSchool

[Music] sixteen years ago I was born back in Beijing China I came to Kenya when I was five years old and believe me or not I like studies more than anything in this world my favorite subjects are math physics chemistry and biology I play a lot of sports specifically badminton and table tennis well I eat everything with chopsticks if you come to my house tonight for dinner I will have to go for utensil shopping because you won't find a single in my house from my description you could tell that I am a typical Chinese young girl right but I'm here to tell you that all the things I mentioned above are incorrect they're completely wrong facts about me I was not born in Beijing China but in the green city under the Sun yes Nairobi Kenya I know you are in doubt but if you have an equipment that can ignore my skin color and look deep inside me you will conclude that I am Kenyan April 17th 2003 was when I joined the road and on that day it was Easter when my mom was distressed after giving birth to me a group of pastors surrounded my mom's hospital bed joyfully sang Christian songs read the golden book and blessed me with the Lord's word since that day I believed that there was a strong connection between God and I being a master 2.3 percent of the 1.4 billion that believes in Christianity in my home country China I feel extremely unique and proud sometimes I ask myself with all my family friends and relatives that believes all types of religion that are in Christianity how did I Kelly still stick firmly to what I believe the answer of gotten is faith I once heard a conversation my Kenyan friends in school and I learned that the first time they used the public transport also known as the Matta - was when they were in pepper artery school shockingly one or two said they have only used the matatu once in their lifetime and that was when they were more than ten years old now ladies and gentlemen I want to ask you a question when do you think was the first time I boarded a Matar - 14 years old yesterday perhaps actually the first time I boarded the matatu was when I was 2 years old surprising right it was the main form of transport I used daily to return home from kindergarten not because of the cheerful and I splitting music played in a Matar - neither because of the creative and mind-blowing graffiti on their body but really my mom didn't know how to drive I remember that white Subaru that was always packed in a compound absorbing that day in day out at some point I really thought it was for decoration purposes but now I'd like to thank my mom for being such an amazing driver in this recent years and most importantly for being able to drive on the main road with no fear now for all those that are already dozing off I want you to take one second and look at me who do you see a strong and healthy girl that is well-fed and confident as she speaks to you all now that I have to give credit to the amount of vocally and Gary I have been eating in these recent years to make me this healthy and this tall now let me do a wild guess many of you in this room wouldn't prefer by foot off the streets because they are considered dirty or unhygenic but guess what since I was very young the May sold on the roadside the eggs and sausages that has Khartoum inside my friends call a smoky pursuer and thus and the sugar cane used to be my small nibble now not that I deem buy food from the supermarket it was just that buying off the streets used to be such a normal thing for me I know you are like is this true and the five W's and one hitch building a suspense bubble in your head but yes it is true that's why I keep on repeating the fact that my inner self totally doesn't match my outer skin if by now you think I am a hundred percent Kenyan well you are wrong despite the fact that I was born in Kenya and I only go to China during my summer holidays my roots are still planted in China it's like a tree no matter how far its branches grow and extend outwards its roots never move so that it can constantly remind you of your origin growing up in Kenya has influenced the way I speak the way I think and who I am but since both my parents are Chinese I can get access to rich Chinese culture tradition and customs well sometimes I sit in my bedroom and think of how lucky I am being a person of two cultures some of people being Kenyan some of me being Chinese and other bits of me being a combination of both by now you may be like why is she sharing her story she isn't famous so why should I listen to her story is it a show of how lucky she is being a person of two cultures no the purpose of my talk is with aid of my story to emphasize that in life there are no boundaries despite that there are 195 countries 7 billion people thousands of different cultures and skintone but together we are one we shouldn't categorize ourselves based from where we come from our our skin tone we shouldn't judge someone based on who they are or what they believe because together we are one big family in this planet Earth there are so many conflicts and war in the society because we as you don't understand the connection we have with each other the love we have to share in order to protect our world all we think is that each man is for themselves and the only love you can share use your friend family and no one else through my story I want to show that there is no difference in us it's not that if I am light-skinned I can't do the things that dark-skinned people do or if I am dark skinned I can't accept people from other cultures imagine if every single one of us making up that 7 billion of the world's population gives them love to the world Wow can you imagine how beautiful and tranquil our world would be it is not time for us to set boundaries for racism discrimination and judging of others please let us believe that every single one is made up of a skeleton and red-hot blood flowing through flowing through us in conclusion I'd like to say no no I'd like to proudly say that I like Who I am Chinese by blood Kenyan by heart thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 78,207

Rating: 4.847518 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Love

Id: he2xLpjjXV0

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 14 2020