Breaking National Boundaries
“Where are you from?” is one of the first questions people ask me when we are starting to get to know each other. I wish I could provide a stable and simple answer to this question. My family is Chinese, and I was born in China, but when I turned six, we abruptly moved to Iquique, Chile. Ever since then it seemed like my whole life had developed in this coastal city in the north of the longest country in the world rather than in what is supposed to be my home country. This disconnect between my ethnicity and the culture I grew up in has led me to adopt a global identity, an identity that strives to break the boundaries of what defines a cultural identity and allows us to find a home that is not simply tied to our ethnicity and/or nationality.
Before I provide a better definition of “global identity,” I would like to delve into my background a little bit. As I said, my family is Chinese and I am, naturally, also Chinese. However, due to my parents’ drive to expand their business, I moved alongside my parents’ dreams and hopes to the tiny coastal city near the Atacama Desert — Iquique. I can still perfectly remember the six-year-old me struggling to speak Spanish with the Latinos around me. My only responses to whatever they said to me always seemed to be “sí” and “yo soy China” accompanied by a dumb smile. My inability to understand and speak their language provided me with a firm tie to my Chinese identity. It felt almost as if I was Chinese before anything else. However, as the years went by and my tongue began adjusting to the speed of the Chilean language, I noticed myself identifying with my Chinese side less and less. Over time, my identity seemed to have merged into a blended soup, in which I could only taste the Chilean flavor, while the Chinese essence became fainter and fainter. However, at the end of the day, it does not even matter how strong I feel connected to my Chilean culture, because I do not look inherently Chilean. No matter how well I speak Spanish, how well I know the culture, or how well I know the country’s history I won’t ever feel fully Chilean and there will always be this part of me that is intrinsically Chinese. Certainly, I can’t simply rip away my Chinese facial features and leave behind the Chinese identity that my parents have immersed in me. Because of this identity dilemma, I have decided to embrace a global identity.
Obviously, this identity issue is not simply a problem that only I struggle with. This is an issue that most immigrants themselves face. When immigrants have a strong desire to keep their ethnic identities and pluralism is encouraged or welcomed, ethnic identity is likely to be strong. However, some immigrants may downplay or reject their ethnic identity in the face of real or perceived animosity toward immigrants or specific groups; others may highlight their pride in their cultural group and emphasize solidarity as a way of dealing with negative sentiments (Phinney et al. 494). In my case, growing up in a country in which I seemed to look like an outsider caused me to disconnect myself from my ethnic culture, whereas my parents, as nationalist as one could be, took pride in being foreign in a country in which they did not feel welcomed. For this reason, adopting a global identity would allow people like me and my parents to not feel rejected from a society in which we are structured to be equal. Rather than seeing ourselves as members of just one nation, a global identity allows us to feel an equal sense of belonging to distinct countries, cultures, and identities.
But what is a global identity? As defined by Arrow and Sundberg, global identity “arises from our recognition that we are like all other people” and the defining feature of this concept is the “identification with all people of the world, transcending national boundaries” (55). In other words, a global identity provides us with a shared community that acknowledges that we are all equal while also celebrating our individuality and our differences. Naturally, adopting a global identity seems like the most reasonable solution for those who struggle with finding a midpoint between two cultural identities, such as me and other immigrants.
I know some may wonder “But why not just identify as Chinese-Chilean rather than as a global citizen?” Well, in my case, as much as I love the simplicity of this term, I feel as though “Chinese-Chilean” creates a limited definition of what my identity is. While I want to feel both Chinese and Chilean, I want to belong to a more expansive community that allows for the integration and intermixing of multiple identities and cultures. Perhaps, when encountering a Chinese-American we both might as feel as though we have different experiences regarding living in a country as immigrants (or children of immigrants). The conversation about how although we are both Chinese, our lives were developed in different Americas is inevitable. Strictly identifying as Chinese-Chilean, Chinese-American, or even Chinese-British (in other cases) creates a greater divide among people with shared experiences, building an invisible barrier of what our identities are meant to be. However, by identifying as global citizens, we’re allowing ourselves to be part of an interconnected world that transcends national boundaries. With a global identity, instead of emphasizing our differences and making them the sole focus of our national/ethnic identities, we are constructing a greater sense of understanding and empathy for one another’s backgrounds, stories, and experiences.
Truthfully, fostering a global perspective allows us to see the world as one melting pot of cultures. By identifying as a global citizen, we stop seeing identity as something that goes hand in hand with our nationality, ethnicity, or even culture we’re accustomed to. We have this ingrained idea that because someone looks and/or acts a certain way, they must be from a certain country. This concept truly limits the perception of what identity is. Identity is something that should go beyond what is defined by our national and cultural boundaries, because our world is constantly developing and connecting with one another, and we can no longer simply identify with one nation anymore. We all acknowledge that we are in such a globalized world, yet we fail to realize that although we might have grown up in different countries, at the end of the day we all belong to this place we call “Earth.” Though hard to believe, we possibly have more similarities and share more common experiences than we think we do. Naturally, possessing a global perspective would unite us and allow us to belong to a broader and more diverse community that breaks the invisible barriers that have been built around what is defined as identity.
In my experience, growing up as a child of immigrants in a mono-ethnic country led me to feel an unavoidable divide of cultures within myself. I felt as though I could not be one or the other, as I was too Chilean to celebrate Chinese New Year and too Chinese to happily enjoy the Fiestas Patrias. My understanding of my identity seemed to be in between two completely opposite countries and I never ever considered the possibility of simply breaking the boundaries between these two cultures and adopting a global identity. Now, identifying as a global citizen I feel a stronger sense of belonging to an international community, in which I can proudly celebrate what makes me unique and I no longer have to feel as though my ethnicity and/or the culture I grew up in define me completely. Now, if I were to be asked “Where are you from?” I can finally provide an answer.
I am from the globe.
Bibliography
Arrow, H., & Sundberg, N. D. International identity: Definitions, development, and some implications for global conflict and peace. ScholarWorks@GVS, 2004. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/ iaccp_papers/272 p. 55
Phinney, Jean S., et al. “Ethnic Identity, Immigration, and Well-Being: An Interactional Perspective.” Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 57, №3, 2001, pp. 493–510. http://cretscmhd.psych.ucla.edu/events/PhinneyPaper.pdf
