Hi, everyone. I'm taking a sociology module called race and ethnic relations. This module challenged many conventional ideas I had about race and ethnicity, how society is structured according to the state's treatment of race/ethnicity as well as how race can be represented or misrepresented in the media, .e.g. billboards, magazines.
I have a question to pose to everyone, since most, if not all of us claim to be of the Chinese ethnic group:
How 'Chinese' do you think you are? What are some 'markers' of Chinese-ness for you?
Think about it.
Dean
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8 comments:
Ha dean!!! Hmmphs I don't even see myself as chinese! I see myself as Singaporean! :) heh.
rit
haha.. when i read 'chinese'.. i immediately thought of ethnicity.. not nationality.. (being a chinaman scares me.. hehe)..
well.. i see myself distinctively 'chinese' in terms of heritage.. i think wat sets me apart from a non chinese would be what how i perceive family.. shared values and also how i identify with chinese 'history' in the form of stories and festivals la.. =)
BUT.. i wouldnt even dare say i'm really really chinese chinese lor.. like Rita.. i see myself more as a Singaporean.. =)
Fu
hmm..rather thought provoking. I do see myself as Chinese but not as much as some people would. I ackowledge my heritage, certain values, and culture...but at the same time I do see myself as rather international, something akin to the Davos man
Dong
hmm.. i would agree with rit in that i do see myself as Singaporean first. however, following that, i do see myself as very Chinese. therefore it'll be Singaporean chinese and not chinese chinese. some aspects of Chineseness i see in myself (dunno if there's any link to your qn) would be that it's impt for me that my future partner be Chinese (even though my kids will be super adorable if i married someone like a blue-eyed blonde caucasian hehe. also other stuff like family values are extremely close to my heart which i feel is associated to my chineseness.
haha.. wanna comment on same race marriages also.. since juls brought it up..
2 of my close close friends for many years peter and jonathan are mixed..
peter is chinese+angmoh.. jonathan is chinese+indian..
perhaps its just a mental model la.. haha.. but i do feel funny when my friends get boy/girlfriends of a different race..
=) but i think tat coming down to it.. we're all God's children la.. same race.. the human race!!
Fu
Thanks for the interesting comments and opinions. Yes, the government has done a very good job in putting out national identity above our ethnic identity. Then begs the question:
Can our Singaporean identity be a new kind of ethnic identity?
Inter-ethnic marriages can be viewed as an attempt at crossing and blending ethnic boundaries, so people might not not be very comfortable as they usually want to stick to the practices and norms of their own ethnic groups.
However, it'll be quite fun to see children of inter-ethnic boundaries turn out not only in terms of looks but also how they negotiate between the socialisation processes of two ethnic cultures and which language they decide to learn.
Dean
interestingly, people always ask me whether i'm singaporean or chinese when i was in uk. cos in many countries, the race & the citizenship are basically the same thing, eg, uk (which would be sub-divided into scots (yeay!), irish, welsh, english & increasingly, others), china, france, italy, india, japan.
i'd usually reply i'm singaporean chinese. cos i know i'm definitely not quite the same as the mainland chinese but yet not all the same as the singaporean malay/indian/etc too. i suppose there're some ways of defining 'ethnic group', but i have a suspicion there are as many definitions as there are sociologists?? ;)
BiG,
leech
race is prescribed i.e. chinese, while ethnicity is chosen, for e.g., singaporean chinese. i'm malaysian in name, but because of my upbringing in sg for the past 21 years, i consider myself singaporean chinese. having said that, i feel not much of a strong affiliation to either, be it singapore or being chinese. does that leave me 'rootless'?
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