I was born here, I live here and I go to school here. So I'm a New Zealander.

But I look different and sometimes I feel different. That's because of who I am, what I eat and what I do. I'm Chinese, a Chinese Kiwi if there is such a thing. But I'm proud and blessed to be both.

Chinese Kiwis the Lins – Alice, 15, Emma, 13, and Regan, 14. Photo by Tracy Hardy.

My name is Alice Lin. I'm 15 and I go to Otumoetai College. I'm in Year 11 and one day I hope to do graphic arts.

I'd also like to let you in on some of the things that make me who I am, set me apart as a bicultural Kiwi. Reporter Hunter Wells invited me to help him write this story, so Kiwis could better understand their Chinese neighbours and friends.

Even though I'm a Kiwi, people at school go ‘Oh you are Asian, you must be really smart' like it runs through my blood or something. But I'm just like anyone else, I have my strengths and weaknesses.

I've also learned from my school friends what the norms are for NZ kids and I've adapted to and grown from them.

For example, it never crossed my mind to take rice or other Chinese food to school. That's ‘stay at home food'. Instead we take fruit and sandwiches and stuff from the supermarket.

Today I want to celebrate and share with you that important part of me that is Chinese. That's the part telling me I should brush my teeth before I eat breakfast. However, at school camp my friends look at me as though I'm an alien.

So when away from home I have to remember to brush after breakfast, and when at home vice versa. So I split myself – with friends I'm a Kiwi but with my parents, grandma and family I'm Chinese.

And being Chinese is having New Year in February, which is the point of all this. Spring Festival or Chinese New Year is the most important traditional festival. In China they have eight days off work. But here in Tauranga we just weave it around work and school.

The Kiwi New Year is same time every year – midnight December 31 with lots of parties, drink and fireworks and is over pretty quick.

But Chinese New Year started February 19, and ends on March 5. We know how to party – two weeks is a proper New Year celebration I think.

Now this is the complicated bit.

For me, the Kiwi Alice Lin the year is 2015. But for the Chinese Alice Lin, the year is 4713. I'm not sure how it works out or who is right but it doesn't matter.

The Chinese New Year is calculated according to the Chinese lunar calendar with each month beginning on the darkest day and ending when the moon is at its brightest.

So New Year is a different date each year but always between January 21 and February 20. This year it was Thursday. Don't worry – even my family thinks this is a bit strange too.

I don't think many of my friends know anything about the Chinese New Year and what happens. We just don't talk about it so this might help you understand your Chinese neighbours and friends. Because to know and appreciate our traditions is to know and appreciate us.

This is the fun bit. On New Year's Eve people gather at each other's homes or restaurants for a feast. It means a long evening of chatting, laughing and eating with friends and family – yummy Peking duck, dumplings, congee, steamed fish, barbecue pork, choy sum, rice and egg custard tarts

And all the children get a lucky red envelope from elders. It usually contains money. I don't really like taking money from them but it's rude if you don't. You kind of just have to be grateful. Mum says it's ‘lucky money' because red symbolises fire, which according to legend drives away bad luck.

I guess that makes us superstitious.

There is often fireworks at midnight and long ago people in China believed the exploding fireworks would drive away evil spirits.

The next four days are spent with extended family, more late nights more eating and talking, shopping and watching the famous lion dances.

But we can't and don't forget the important things – here in Tauranga there is still work and school tomorrow.

Celebrations are also closely tied to the Chinese Zodiac. Many New Zealanders are also interested in horoscopes.

I understand in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. He named a year after each of 12 animals which came, and decided people born in that year would inherit some of that animal's personality.

This is the year of the goat and those people are often creative, charming, sensitive, and sweet –Jane Austen, Michelangelo, Mark Twain, Rudolph Valentino and Orville Wright were all born in the year of the goat or sheep.

Lucky numbers for them are two and seven, unlucky numbers are six and eight – and they shouldn't travel or do anything in a sou'westerly direction. I don't understand that bit either.

Being a Chinese New Zealander or a New Zealand Chinese, I suppose it's a process of adapting and I'm still learning about being Kiwi.

Sometimes my 14-year-old brother Regan and 13-year-old sister Emma complain about having to eat Chinese food at home. 'Why can't we be like our friends and eat European food?” they ask.

I guess they just want to fit in with their friends but Mum raised us with her cultural norms.

She just wants us to keep and understand what we are part of.

Being multi-cultured means you are always thinking about who you are and where you belong.

I've inherited two completely different cultures – I live a European lifestyle fused with a Chinese one and I'm both privileged and proud to have both.