The "We R No Race" Project

I am so excited. I took part in a study today which is a DNA test as part of the We R NO Race project, run by Prof. Dr Sergio Danilo Pena of the Nucleo de Genetica Medica Laboratorio in Belo Horizonte in Brazil. I am so keen to find out about what my DNA will tell me about my ancestry. I am particularly keen because my parents have always seen our family as simply 'Chinese' without thinking about how we might share common roots with people from other parts of the world and what this would mean in terms of our shared humanity.

I told the scientist who took the swab from my cheeks about my parents attitude and he said to me, "Well, we've tried this on several Chinese people and you'll be surprised. They may look completely Chinese but the results show that their ancestry can be quite complex simply because our genomes are passed from generation to generation and most people don't know much about their ancestry much beyond three or four generations. Everyone's result is unique and hard to predict. The further back you trace, the more branches in the family tree and the more possibilities and your DNA is a result of all that. After all, it was only 60,000 years ago that modern humankind left Africa to populate the other continents so think about it - that's where we started, now how did we get from there to where we are in 60,000 years? What did your ancestors do in that time?"

What lies in your DNA?

I don't know that much about my family's ancestry beyond my grandparents and it has been made more difficult since none of my grandparents are still alive today. But this is far more than just what I can trace back, this is what is flowing in my blood, in my bones and undeniably it is part of whom I am, so this is not what my parents are telling me I should be based on what they think my values or identity should be. Frankly, I'd love to subject my parents to the same test as that would challenge their own concepts of whom they are as "Chinese" people - but hey, since I got my genes from them, I guess they should be equally interested in my results. Imagine if I had African or Caucasian DNA in me, then what would that make me then? Would it be accurate to then shove me under the "Chinese" label?

Let's see. They have to send my sample to Brazil to complete the tests and then I will get the results on the 1st November. Can't wait. Akan datang.