 |
|
| Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name. |
|
|
|
| |
|
| | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
Chinese Culture, Asian American Identity? (Score: 1)
by aelward on Thursday, June 17 @ 14:45:21 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.aznhealth.com | I know Liu Bang. I think Xiang Yu was a much better human being, but he probably could not have established a dynasty that could last over 400 years.
That out of the way, do you not think that your disappointment of a lack of an Asian American culture contradicts your willingness to kick Japanese-Americans out of the Asian American community? How is that any different from those that pushed for their wholesale internment based upon their ethnic origin?
Just as Chinese and Chinese Americans are different, so to are Japanese and Japanese Americans-- even more so, since the majority of Japanese Americans were either born here or came before the post 1965 boom in Asian immigration. But the bottom line is that the Japanese Americans today are more likely to be the ones who stormed Northern Italy and Germany and not China and the Philippines.
And to think of Chinese culture as being the basis for an Asian-American identity-- do you not remember the exclusivity in which all these Asian immigrants lived? A Filipino American immigrant in 1890 would no more want to partake of Chinese culture than a Chinese American immigrant would of Filipino culture. A recent Korean immigrant today is more concerned with feeding his family than embracing another Asian culture for the sake of identity.
While I am optimistic that there is a forming consciousness of an Asian-American identity and an emmerging Asian-American culture, I certainly doubt it will be Chinese. To think that any type of Asian American culture would be devoid of any American pop culture is naive. |
| Parent |
|
Re: AgryABCGirl: YOu go girl (Score: 1)
by Dolemite on Thursday, June 17 @ 17:23:25 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Oh Boy....
Do you know that I TA'd Asian American Studies classes at UCD, and that I studied in Shanghai, and that I have a MBA focused on business in China? And I have lived and worked all over Asia, Europe and South America? Perhaps not. But- i think the principle disconnect here is that I was born in the US and did not emigrate.
I do disagree that pop-culture is not culture. Pop culture has been way way too influencial in terms of how a culture develops to be ignored. Shakespere was a pop-culture icon for his time - as was Mozart and Mao and Confucious. Pop-culture is about ideology and the representation of cultural norms and values- tell me that is not important to know.
"Off all the minorities in America, Chinese culture was never stripped from us like AFrican culture was taken from Blacks."
Here is where I have to disagree with you again. I believe every effort was made by the whyte man to strip away Chinese culture from immigrants in the 1800's. Exclusionary acts, the forcing of the paper wife situation, laws to limit land ownership and commerce - everything was done to supress the Chinese and leave them as a labor class. The principle difference between Africans and Chinese was that Chinese were not considered property. Otherwise- much the same was applied in terms of cultural destruction and the like. I would argue that the extention of this -the creation of Chinatowns- is the form of preservation for Chinese culture. Granted, people and born, live, and die, and never leave Chinatown, but they do so in America- and thus - are Asian American to a certain literal degree. Initial leaders of the Asian empowerment movement in the 60's came from Chinatown as well... don't tell me they didn't realize there was something wrong with whyte america.
To further postulate as to why Asian-Americans do not have an identity, I'll go with the most basic foundation - No unified language. African Americans have been able to unify and polarize because the majority of those in the movement and most African Americans have roots dating back at least a hundred years in the US... mostly more. It ain't recent African immigrants that are leading the movement you know... as such, they have a collective experience unified by the ENGLISH language to allow them the ability to create a collective consciousness. Latinos- they face a difference situation - their rates of immigration are probably the highest in the nation, but despite what country they come from - they have a unifying language of SPANISH. It is not to say that they share a collective culture- it would be a disservice to assume that a Bolivian and a Nicaraguan shared the same history - but when push comes to shove, they can unite under the same language.
Cut now to Asians... the majority in American do not have a long history in this country - you as well as I have roots less than 30 years in this country. Considering the diaspora of Asian immigrants - there is no unifying language or culture to bind the group. Using English is a disservice to those who are not comfortable with it. There are too many languages and dialects for all the Asians in America to just pick one. Forcing Asians in America to accept Chinese or any other Asian culture dogmatically is also a disservice (don't forget- there are still many that are none too happy with the imperialistic nature of certain figures in Chinese history. If you want a personal touch to that- Mao's Red Guards killed my Grandfather) Please also do not confuse the issue of Taiwanese independence into this debate.
And here is where I think you are coming from - you are looking towards an agenda which people of Chinese ancestry should identify deeper with Chinese culture. In a sense, it is Chinese empowerment. Fine. Should then Japanese Americans identify deeper with Japanese culture, and for Koreans, and for Indonesians? What if the Indonesians are from Eastern Timor - whose culture do they identify with? How does that aid i
Read the rest of this comment... |
| Parent- Dolemite by Minh on Thursday, June 17 @ 18:41:38 EDT
- Re: Dolemite by Dolemite on Thursday, June 17 @ 18:59:55 EDT
- Re: Dolemite by Minh on Thursday, June 17 @ 21:18:10 EDT
- Re: Dolemite by Dolemite on Thursday, June 17 @ 22:47:38 EDT
- Re: Dolemite by aelward on Friday, June 18 @ 10:13:28 EDT
- Re: Dolemite by pineappleheadindc on Friday, June 18 @ 12:59:04 EDT
|
|
|
