A reflection of your own experiences of culture and identity in relation to education

Being Bullied :  "Ok so know you guys have heard a little bit about me being a bully so let's flip the coin and talk about me being bullied. Now just to clarify, I have never experienced any serious bullying, when I mean serious I’m talking about severe verbal or physical abuse. Anyway back to my story, you all probably don’t know but this but I’m ABC, what is ABC you ask? Well for starters it’s the first three letters of the alphabet but it also means Australian Born Chinese. Yes that’s right I am Chinese. From a very young age I remember people (not all time) would comment and tease me about my ethnicity, even to this day they might not say anything to my face, but the way they talk to me as if I dumb and don’t understand what they’re talking about always frustrates me. I just think to myself are you serious, it’s the 21st century get a grip and get over it, I’m Asian and I can speak English, like many other Asian people out there. Actually I tell people all the time that I’m probably more Australian then I am Chinese, you can ask my family, my Chinese is atrocious. So why do these people want to demean someone over his or her race, nationality, religion, culture, age, gender, beliefs, etc, there is no point. As my mum always says, it doesn’t matter if your black, white, yellow, or even green or purple, where all the same and no one should ever be treated differently. Well if your green or purple you might want to see your GP, but you get the point."  SEPTEMBER 24 2012

Sometimes people just don’t understand what it’s like to be an [insert nationality here] born Chinese( or any other nationality for that matter)  :  It’s like being stuck in between two worlds and I don’t really fit in either of them. To Australians I’m Chinese not Australian but to Chinese; I’m Australian not Chinese. Today my aunt said to me: seems like you’re finally integrating into Hong Kong culture. Personally, I thought, what the actual f***? Where do you think I’m from? Mars? But it’s not the first time that’s happened and it won’t be the last. So my point is that I am neither Australian nor Chinese; I’m an Australian born Chinese.   January 25th 2012.

My identity has been a hybrid of Chinese and Australian, also known as an 'ABC'. I do "Chinese" things such as speaking the language at home or eating rice for dinner but as I'm born in Australia, I have adapted to the "Australian" culture such as certain mannerisms. Due to intersectionality of my cultures and identity, I find it hard to identify which culture I ultimately belong to. When I'm in Hong Kong I would tell my relative that "I'm Australian" but when I'm in Australia I would tell others that "I'm Chinese". My culture and identity has impacted my education because it changed how other people viewed me as. My classmates would always say stereotypical things like "Asians are good at math", "You must be smart" or "You must be hardworking.". Interestingly, my Chinese relatives ,specifically my parents, say different things like (translated from Cantonese) "Asians are hardworking whilst Australians are laid back. You're not studying hard enough and schools don't give you enough homework.". My western friends stresses the idea of being "free individuals" whilst my family stresses the idea of being "family orientated." In relation to my choices, I decide to have a mixture of both cultures. My decision has however made friends and family members have conflicting perspectives on me, causing misunderstandings and disapprovals from both parties.

Wadham et al. (2007, p. 3) states "What time do I eat, and with what implements - knife and fork, chopsticks, my hands? With whom should I eat - family friends, strangers? ... Our culture teaches us the answers to these questions. In short, culture shapes much of our lives and decision-making. If we don't understand culture, we don't really understand human beings." I believe that identities created through the means of cultural differences gather stereotypical excuses for one to categorize another. However humans should not and cannot be categorized just by expressing a choice.  As Phillips (2006, p. 4) comments "[there] is a clear sense of who counts as your kin, and it makes culture almost definition by oppositional. 'My' culture means ' not yours' ". Intersectionality of two cultures therefore breaks a singular culture categories and therefore oppression can be created by the two 'opposing' cultures. 

Since I'm a hybrid of western and Chinese culture, I do use forks and chopsticks for my utensil choices but if I were to do something different, would I be labeled as having another cultural influence? I believe there's a possibility because "Humans actively  produce and are produced by culture." (Wadham et al., 2007 p. 4). A clear example of this is the transforming 'culture' of young people today. Technology has been such a big impact to the generation, that new forms of activity are now being produced and normalised globally, such as planking.  New languages are being created, such as "Yolo". Would we call that a 'culture'? 

How does this affect education? It affects education because it's changing people and therefore changing how people interact and communicate. Teachers and students should be required to learn as much as possible about individuals within a classroom so that subjective assumptions can be eliminated. As Anonymous (January 25th 2012) posted "It's like being stuck in between two worlds and I don't really fit in either of them", perhaps in future there will be more support and understanding towards hybrid cultures in future generations.

·     *     Anonymous blogger. (September 24 2012). Being Bullied. Retrieved September 21st 2013, from http://help-stop-bullying.tumblr.com/post/32356912679/being-bullied

·       *   Anonymous blogger. (25th January 2013). Sometimes people just don't understand what it's like. Retrieved September 21st 2013, from http://dementeddementor.tumblr.com/post/16460809155/sometimes-people-just-dont-understand-what-its-like

·       *  Phillips, Anne (2006) What is 'culture'? In: Arneil, Barbara, Deveaux, Monique, Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenberg, Avigail, (eds.) Sexual justice / cultural justice. Routledge innovations in political theory . Routledge, pp. 15-29. ISBN 9780415770927

·    *      Wadham, B. Pudsey,J. & Boyd, R. (2007) Culture and education.  Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture? p. 1-32