Being an Asian foreigner in Seattle, it is challenging to be aware of my own assumptions, values and biases. The mainstream tends to think that someone like me should be passive or perhaps less articulate. Struggling to find my identity in this society has made me wonder what my cultural identity is. The ironic part is the further I move away from my native country to the United States, the closer I am to finding my cultural heritage. Often times, I am caught between both sides; trying to assimilate to be part of the melting pot has left my own community thinking that I am not retaining my roots. On the other hand, if I were not to conform to social changes, I will be accused of not being able to adapt. It is never a win-win situation, but I guess that is because I am on the crossroads of both Eastern and Western cultures. I just want to be accepted as who I am. Personally, I feel that if an individual is really committed to a rigorous respect for difference, whether in terms of cultural identity or political options, then difference is not an optional extra. In political and practical terms, diversity costs. Yet for me as a hybrid of both east and west whose culture is not completely mainstream has encountered the feeling that if I want to be different in any way, I may be a nuisance. While adapting to cope with my cultural identity, there is an absence of a dynamic of creative confrontation, of the dialectical process through which ideas are opposed to one another and something new and creative emerges in the interactive process that this entails. I am aware that I can reclaim or retain my cultural identity from the far right if I emphasize the diversity of my own origins, not its alleged unitary nature. I think that a truly transformed cultural identity should celebrate all cultures, including the dominant one, within an agreed, common, rights-based framework. Minorities within the dominant culture who feel ourselves to be excluded can join forces with other minority cultures. All of this will require meaningful power-sharing, across classes as well as across communities. This means, paradoxically, that I must be more willing to empower and support my own critics on the margins, creating in the process a self where different cultural identities and also profound differences of view are acceptable. But can I truly be me? Using Shakespeare’s famous line, “To Thine ownself be true,” suggests that an individual only has a single self to which he or she can be truthful. But can we be totally truthful to ourselves, and the people around us? Like everything else, there is no definite answer, simply because the truth is somewhere in between, just like half and half :-)
We all, in one or more senses, are foreigners in even our own societies. We strive to maintain our own identities without alienating those customs, surroundings, and people who are foreign to our habits, customs, and beliefs. Certainly, the cultural values and differences between people of different countries are often the most pronounced because they are the most obvious - the easiest to recognize. At this macro level of social, political, cultural, and personal difference, its quite apparent (and sadly obviously) why persons of different cultures often clash in views or even basic respect for each other.
ReplyDeleteOn a middle level, and even on a micro level, however, these same differences are with all of us. In the U.S., we have almost always had a cultural and personal divide between white and non-white, between old and young, between rich and poor, between well educated and poorly educated. It’s an unspoken system of caste, and to many people, an unfortunate excuse for social divide.
So, the challenge -- for all of us -- is to maintain and develop our individuality while at the same time embracing and appreciating (not just tolerating) every other person’s individuality. And, perhaps, the best way to understand, appreciate, and embrace the beauty of others so “different” than ourselves is to first “be true to ourselves.”
Assimilation, in my opinion, is exactly what all of us, in whatever “foreign” capacity we hold, should avoid completely. To be absorbed into a society, to mimic those who are our “foreigners” in order to “fit in” or “adapt," is social homogenization. Hopes to elevate and embrace diverse cultures (both macro and micro, both foreign and local) are counterproductive because the inevitable (or eventual) apex of such assimilation is an increase in a single über-society.
So, the final question you pose, “Can we be totally truthful to ourselves, and the people around us?” I believe we can, and should. If gaining the respect of some people can be gained only through a misrepresentation of your ideals and culture, then you have gained nothing to advance understanding and appreciation between these macro and micro culture differences. All we have done is to move the assimilation apex up one more notch.
On the other hand, to even the worst of our critics, if you can hold your cultural head high amidst the jeers of those who have most likely already been hammered into their own assimilation box, you have won everything.
The one half is the heritage, pride, and conviction you share openly. The other half is that which you keep in your heart. That is the half that will, in fact, keep us true unto ourselves.