Eva Pau, commercial director of family business Asia Market, shares her experience of growing up immersed in both Irish and Chinese cultures.
Eva Pau, commercial director of family business Asia Market, on being immersed in Irish culture from an early age, but they’d lived in the UK for a few years before moving to Ireland in the early 1980s, so there was no huge culture shock when they arrived in Dublin . My uncle was already living here with his Irish wife, running a Chinese takeaway in Rathfarnham. He would travel to London in a van every week to buy ingredients, and that’s how the idea for the Asia Market came about.
I was the only Chinese child in St Pius X Girls’ National School, but I never thought I was different. I was immersed in Irish culture: I went to Irish dancing classes, I learned Irish along with everybody else and I went to theevery summer. Of course, my lunch box looked a little different to my classmates’ – they were fascinated by my fried egg and spam sandwiches and malted soy juice drinks – and when I arrived home from school I spoke Cantonese and Chinese.
When I went to Alexandra College as a teenager, they looked on me as a foreign student so they asked whether or not I wanted to take Irish as a subject and I said I did. I always really enjoyed speaking Irish; I remember the first summer I went to Coláiste Sheosaimh in Galway, the Bean an Tí looked slightly shocked to see a Chinese girl speaking Irish.
Growing up, my mum and dad worked tirelessly to build the business. It’s easy to get carried away with work and forget to mark traditions and holidays, so it’s something I’ve become really invested in, especially since I had my children. I want them to learn about local and Chinese traditions.is very food-orientated. We enjoy gathering around food, especially dim sum. I suppose the Irish equivalent is families having a Sunday roast together.
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