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read books such as "Chinese Americans and their immigrant parents" by May Paomay Tung and "Asian American X" by Arar Han and John Hsu.
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Interesting you should mention "Asian American X". I'm the author of the essay in there titled "Death of a Butterfly."
Personally, I don't think it's accurate to say that someone doesn't have a cultural heritage. If you think about "Chinese culture" itself, what is it? Even if you're Chinese and you speak Mandarin, that doesn't mean you're speaking what your ancestors spoke...for they were most likely speaking their own local dialect. Plus, who's to say what is Chinese? Just look at such diverse Chinese nations as Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the mainland (and I don't mean country when i say nation). Each place has its own unique culture, and as Auntie mentioned, creolization. Even what is considered the most "Biao Zun" Chinese culture, that of Beijing, has heavy influences from Manchurian and Mongolian cultural heritage, that in itself is a creolization. Every culture is in fact a creolization, it's just politics, media, power, and the basic tribalistic human need to categorize and separate "we" from "them" that has drawn borders to distinguish "Chinese" and "non-Chinese" when there really isn't such a distinction. Cultural purity is a sham, especially in this day and age.
But I'm speaking too academically now. Very good lesson.
Posted on: Chinese Identity
May 10, 2007 at 3:01 AM[QUOTE] read books such as "Chinese Americans and their immigrant parents" by May Paomay Tung and "Asian American X" by Arar Han and John Hsu. [/QUOTE] Interesting you should mention "Asian American X". I'm the author of the essay in there titled "Death of a Butterfly." Personally, I don't think it's accurate to say that someone doesn't have a cultural heritage. If you think about "Chinese culture" itself, what is it? Even if you're Chinese and you speak Mandarin, that doesn't mean you're speaking what your ancestors spoke...for they were most likely speaking their own local dialect. Plus, who's to say what is Chinese? Just look at such diverse Chinese nations as Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the mainland (and I don't mean country when i say nation). Each place has its own unique culture, and as Auntie mentioned, creolization. Even what is considered the most "Biao Zun" Chinese culture, that of Beijing, has heavy influences from Manchurian and Mongolian cultural heritage, that in itself is a creolization. Every culture is in fact a creolization, it's just politics, media, power, and the basic tribalistic human need to categorize and separate "we" from "them" that has drawn borders to distinguish "Chinese" and "non-Chinese" when there really isn't such a distinction. Cultural purity is a sham, especially in this day and age. But I'm speaking too academically now. Very good lesson.