Cultural Fusion and Why It’s Important
Go back to your country. Speak English. It seems like every week in the Western World, there’s a new viral video surfacing of someone barking these words at another person. I’ve been fortunate enough to have not experienced this personally, however my parents haven’t fared so well. Being an interracial couple, they still get weird stares all the time when holding hands in public. My dad’s old high school yearbook has slurs and offensive words written in it, but it was passed off as “normal.” And even though there has been more cultural integration than ever before thanks to the internet, things like these show there’s still push back against it. Some people may be against mixing cultures, believing that it ruins the integrity of the cultures, however I would disagree. Having multiple cultures interact together spreads them further, often causing them to form new, unique cultures and traditions.
This leads me to the topic of national and global citizenship and how we identify ourselves. For me, having a national identity and identifying as a national citizen means putting one’s own culture first and wanting to learn about that culture more than others. A national citizen will identify first as a person of their country. This contrasts a global identity and someone who identifies as a global citizen. They may be more open to learning about and participating in other cultures around the world. A global citizen will identify first as a person of the world. These definitions are fluid a lot of the time and may not align with what other people think global and national citizenship/identity means.
There are, of course, extremities within both global and national citizenship that are difficult to forget about. An example of extreme national citizenship was explained at the beginning of the essay. These people who reject other cultures completely may have a more “purist” set of ideals, and do not want other cultures to mix with theirs at all. Extreme global citizens, however, may get so involved in learning about other cultures that they end up not identifying with their culture at all. I think that it’s more common to see extreme national citizens, as the idea of global citizenship seems to be less well-known.
National citizens, among others, may argue that mixing cultures will lead to a homogeneous society. While a valid argument, I believe that cultural mixing does quite the opposite. If two cultures were to begin to mix, a new hybrid one would be created. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the two original cultures will completely dissipate. I cannot picture a situation in which a culture disappears from existence completely unless it is forcibly removed from the people who shared it.
There are a few examples of “hybrid cultures” that I can think of, both on a larger scale and on a smaller scale. What stood out to me the most was the blend of Japanese and Brazilian culture. In the early 1900s, Japanese immigrants moved to Brazil, which eventually became the place that holds the largest Japanese-descended population outside of Japan itself. Elizabeth Unger of National Geographic explains how the two cultures have mixed. Japanese food is popular in Brazil, and Brazilian food has made it back to Japan in the form of Japanese-Brazilian fusion food. Brazilian culture and Japanese culture are still very much their own separate cultures, however we should not forget the unique culture that has emerged from the two.
On a more personal note, the other example I can think of is with my own family. While I am mixed, I am by no means incredibly connected to either my Chinese or my European culture. My Chinese side goes back about 4 to 5 generations, while my European side goes back who-knows how many times. My dad, his brothers, my cousins, and I can’t even speak Cantonese. Even then, my dad’s side of the family still tries to keep in touch with our Chinese heritage in our own Americanized way. We celebrate Western holidays together like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We eat turkey and roast beef on these holidays, however we also bring assortments of dim sum. We celebrate New Years on the first day of January and we celebrate it again in February. While we are nowhere near as populous as the Japanese population in Brazil, it feels like we’ve created our own little hybrid culture. I wouldn’t be surprised if other Americanized families feel the same.
My own cultural and familial background has contributed to my identification as a global citizen. I’ve found that I enjoy learning about many different cultures, whether I am a part of them or not. I think it’s incredibly important to stay connected to your own culture, however rejecting other cultures can create unwelcoming environments for anyone around you, and could even lead to xenophobia and racism. As people are becoming more open to learning about other cultures, they may also learn to empathize with others more. I hope that we can take our empathy and use it to be aware of all our surroundings and how we fit into this world.
