SOMEWHERE BETWEEN tells intimate stories of what it is like to come-of-age as a trans-racial adoptee in today’s America, as examined through the POV of some of the 79,562 adopted girls from China.
The less you know your own language and the more you speak English with a foreign accent the more you are looked up to. This distinction continues in every social and professional sphere of life. Your social climbing is greatly facilitated by your fluency of expression in English, your job prospects become almost 100 times brighter if you have a smooth and fluent expression in this language, your entry into many clubs and networking forums becomes automatic and your presence in the virtual and social media world gets noticed.
[To add to an already contentious issue, schools in Sindh, Pakistan will make the learning of Chinese mandatory.]
” Daily TimesI was reading this article about language and identity from a widely-circulated Philippines newspaper, when the above paragraph jumped out at me. Do they really believe that? Facepalm.
(via ffeimo)
Interview with Fred Wah about Diamond Grill, a biofiction about hybridity and growing up in a small-town Chinese-Canadian café, story won the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Fiction.
Suhoor or iftar; breakfast, lunch or snack
Interesting how different labels applied to the same foods can affect our perception of the people eating. I had refrained from food posts during the month of Ramadan, lest some tumblr visitors are observing the fast. Yet when I came across this illustration, I couldn’t help but imagine how our reactions to the picture or grazer could be influenced dramatically, simply by playing with different captions. No matter who or where you are or what meal you are sharing, enjoy your food, glorious food.
On Being Pakistani
For sixty-four years, Pakistani identity has been a thorny issue. Even without addressing the academic quarrels over Pakistan’s ideology or whether Jinnah’s Pakistan was meant to be a Muslim nation-state, a state for South Asian Muslims, an Islamic state or a state for all oppressed minorities of the Indian subcontinent, shaping dialogue on how we address ourselves as a multi-ethnic state is not easy.
At any rate, we must not lose sight of the fact that identity is plural, fluid, situational and context driven. The Pakistani identity of a Manchester United fan watching a football match between Barcelona and Manchester United is largely irrelevant. But during an India-Pakistan cricket match, it becomes much more relevant for analyzing behavior. Likewise, an individual’s Sindhi identity may not be the primary influence on his behavior or choices on Pakistan Day. Entirely different calculus may apply for Sindh Culture Day.
The bottom-line? Viewing identity as a singular and static construct is flawed.
Source: The Express Tribune
Why aren't you speaking the right language?
Non accommodation might even make one of the interlocutors upset, as Susan Gal, professor at the University of Chicago, reports in her study of language choice between Hungarian and German bilinguals in Oberwart, Austria. She relates that an elderly man told his friends during a game of cards how insolent a young bilingual salesman at the grocery store had been to him. “The little creep answered me in German” he stated, when he should have replied in Hungarian, the language he had been addressed in.
Status raising is an important reason for a change of language. Professor Carol Myers Scotton of Michigan State University, and her colleague, William Ury, reported on some fascinating cases in the Luhya region of Kenya. In one of them, a passenger on a bus in Nairobi and a conductor (fare collector) were conversing in Swahili. The passenger said that he wanted to go to the post office, and the conductor replied that it would cost him fifty cents. The passenger gave him a shilling and the conductor told him to wait for his change. As the bus neared the post office, the passenger became worried and asked for his change again. The conductor simply replied that he would receive it. No longer convinced, the passenger changed over to English and said, “I am nearing my destination.” and the conductor replied in English, “Do you think I could run away with your change?”.
Source: Psychology Today
If you're a minority, but identify culturally with the U.S. or Canada, should you self-define as white?
The question I often have for South Asian Americans, especially those who come from affluent backgrounds and whose acculturation is largely to Euro-American (“white”) norms, is whether they really think they are so going to be very different from white ethnic communities down the road.
Isn’t it fair that some South Asian Americans with little connection to South Asian culture or language would see themselves (and be seen as) “white” by others in their communities? Isn’t it possible to be of South Asian origin and “white” at the same time?
Source: Amardeep Singh, Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University
Children of immigrants couldn't define Canadian identity
Second-generation Canadians are both optimistic and critical of the entire concept of multiculturalism in Canada, he said. They believe integrating and learning from each other could be a hugely positive experience that too often turns into immigrant communities living in “silos” side by side -and they blame their immigrant parents, not the rest of society, for that.
“One of the myths that’s very much alive in Canada is that the United States is worse on every score,” he said. “The idea that we live in a mosaic and they live in a melting pot -in spite of the fact that it’s not true as far as the evidence shows -that’s certainly believed by a lot of people.”
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Re: “What is in a name?” May 1 & 5
Grace: Thank you for sharing your stories and thoughts!
I was surprised to read your grandfather’s story. That reminded me of my grandparents’ generation. That was a hard, toilsome era, in which the birth rate was high but survival rate was low. While the medical knowledge and practice was not so advanced, that a baby could be borne healthy, survive, and grow up was not something easy. Therefore, they named their babies such as Mong-chi (Taiwanese, meaning “carelessly raised”) with a good intention that the baby won’t draw any jealousy and misfortune. Therefore, many of them had lowly names.
As for the distance created by alias name, I happened to read an old immigrant’s blog. He noticed that many young people studying abroad only knew the English names of others even though they had been friends for many years. It felt like they did not expect to build up a relationship that would last after their return to the mother country. Being upset about the phenomenon, he noticed how much a name meant to him; thus, he purposely changed back to his birth name from his alias English name, which had been used for decades.
What is in a name? part II
…at some point they start to exchange their Chinese names. This action implies that “now I know you in person,” no matter which name they would prefer calling each other afterwards. Asking and giving our birth given names symbolises a further level of the personal relationship. It is as if one’s real identity has been revealed and is suggestive of the potential for longer and deeper relationships. On the other hand, if a person purposefully refuses to mention their birth given name, the subtle underlying implication is “I am not revealing myself to you” or “I do not want you to know me.” By implication, the English name becomes a mask behind which we can hide.
I included the above quote from Grace Chu-Lin Chang’s article to give context to my story. In my grandfather’s generation, it was standard practice to be given a new name once a child starts school. This new name will be used in all dealings with the outside world, beyond the family walls. Hence the birth name is rarely used from school age onwards, except by family elders, and even then they will prefer a nickname to convey a term of endearment. So the birth name is probably never heard of again.
The new name is to be used in school, work and all outside dealings until the very end. I only learnt of my grandfather’s birth name when I saw it inscribed on his tombstone – and if my memory wavers in any way, I will not be able to locate his resting place because the cemetery records only refers to his birth name. Yet every document during his lifetime bore his common name. So his birth name is used at the beginning and the end, everything in between is the alias.
Having a birth name as well as a common name was the tradition during my grandfather’s time. It seemed to protect his personal identify or create some space for his public one, separating his private and public selves.
Today, I see the same parallels in adopting English aliases as described in Grace’s article. The alias is the mask behind which one can hide, revealing the birth name only to a select few when deeper relationships are formed. In contrast to English given names that are often “by the book”, Chinese names are very individualistic and unique hence highly personal. They are all custom made by stringing words together, so it is rare indeed to meet another person with the same name.
Another parallel for aliases is of course the online identity. Other than professional accounts, many user profiles prefer the anonymity of a creative nickname, again a screen to hide behind.
As someone who brandishes the birth name at introductions, I sometimes scare off people on both sides: Anglophones and Chinese speakers alike. They have both asked me the same question yet for very different reasons. “Do you have an English (Christian) name?”
Anglos want to know if I have a familiar-sounding name that is easier for them – the answer is no, like you my name is integral to my identity so you’ll just have to deal with it. Chinese speakers want to know because they need that alias barrier; otherwise I am way too familiar too soon. I recall Chinese speakers who could never address me by my real name, even when we became good friends or close colleagues. They skirted around the dilemma by saying my name in an anglicised way, thus my name and I can get no closer. The years have past, boundaries remain.
How odd, the same desire for an alias yet they originate from two opposing premises – one is to spawn familiarity, the other, to create distance.
More to come.
