Episode 15: Vika Khu — Identity and Sense of Belonging for a Russian-born Chinese
“Do you consider yourself a Russian or a Chinese?”
“Which country do you feel more attached to, Russia or China?”
“When you said ‘we,’ do you mean Russians or Chinese?”
…
These are all questions that Vika often gets asked about.
In this episode, we talked to Victoria Khu (Vika), a Russian-born Chinese who was born and raised in Siberia. She is the co-founder and president of SCOLAR Network, a platform affiliated to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretariat that aims at connecting young leaders from the 18 SCO countries, including China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, etc. SCOLAR organizes cultural events to expose people to different cultures of 18 SCO countries as well as entrepreneurial conferences to bring together business leaders and young professionals. Vika is also a TEDx speaker and a member of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
We invited Vika to talk about her experience in Russia, her understanding of her identity, family, childhood in Siberia, and her connection to China. We also touched on the identity crisis that Vika experienced after she came to China for college and how she navigated through it. From this episode, you can also have a glimpse at how Vika’s unique cross-cultural experiences prompted her to create an international community of aspiring young leaders.
This episode is 35 minutes. You can check out the episode on Spotify, Ximalaya, and other UCBRC platforms. We welcome you to comment down below any thoughts, ideas, or things you want to discuss!
Content Highlights:
1:23 From Sichuan to USSR
My grandparents heard that USSR had better living conditions. So they decided to take this huge risk and begin this journey with a group of people.
4:37 “My mom is from Harbin and my dad is from Siberia”
My mom was studying at a university in Irkutsk, which is very close to Harbin. My dad was teaching at that university, and this was how they met.
5:45 Are your parents from two different cultures?
My dad was also raised in the Chinese environment because his parents were born and raised in China. So it’s a lot about the Chinese culture, especially in terms of family values and how we were raised. At the same time, my dad’s growth was influenced by Soviet culture. So there are some differences between my parents.
9:17 Difference in parents
My mom is stricter, while my dad is a bit more chill. From the decision-making point of view, he wanted us to make our own mistakes and learn from them. However, my mom was trying to prevent us from making mistakes.
11:50 Was your family different or more special than other families?
My family was a bit different in terms of having Chinese culture and language, but I’ve never felt like it was something special until I went to China to study. After meeting other Russian peers who also studied in China, I understood that it’s pretty special to be Russian Chinese.
13:26 You have never experienced racism in Siberia?
No, I didn’t. I think our school was very open about having students of different nationalities.
16:25 Importance of language
Language is especially important for my generation, and the further you go, the more important it is to connect to your roots.
18:26 Being a foreigner among Chinese and Russians
I had this identity crisis for a while. I’m not fully Chinese when I’m with Chinese and I'm not fully Russian with Russians. So I was trying to look for that sense of belonging to a certain group. It took me a while to understand that I don’t have to do it.
26:57 The beginning of SCOLAR
I was leading the Russian Students Association before SCOLAR, and during that time, we got to know many students from other Russian-speaking countries in Central Asia. After meeting them, I had an idea to do something together with students from these countries.
33:10 Two Russian proverbs for our listeners
Ученье- свет, а неученье - тьма. (Knowledge is light and ignorance is darkness.）
Век живи, век учись (Live and learn!)
