A full blood Chinese is often called in Mauritius a 32. What would a half bred be? The child born of the union of a Chinese to a non Chinese, a half bred would be a 32/2= 16.

Look at the features of this lady. Surely you can observe from the photo of my Grandmother that she is a 16. Indeed , she was the child of my great grandfather Mr. Ah Fan, a china man married to Josephine Hitié.

Grandmother Anna, also lovingly called Tana in the family, married another china man, another 32 and gave birth to my mother. So by simple genes mathematics, the Chinese content of the genes of my mother, based on 32 would work out to be 16 + 32=48/2= 24.

Since my mother married another 32, I reckon that I should mathematically be 24+32= 56/2=28.

Assuming that my wife is another 32, as we have reason to believe, from her ancestry, my children by the same token would be 28 + 32=60 /2 = 30.

In the final analysis, who cares about the weighting of chineseness in our genes? Does a pure blood Chinese exist? After all, the Hans who are the majority of china, are themselves a metissage of different tribes from various part of China and Mongolia.

Whilst it is interesting to know one’s origin, recognising it to move forward in life is the most important. To dig the cultural richness from the past to live a better present and build a compelling future is my belief.

Never mind the genes count, we have greater cultural richness to tap from our Mauritian environment. First hand exposure to the numerous cultures on our Island is truly a strength which I have availed myself of to build my agility of mind. Mauritians have more than one trick to draw from the various cultures.