Thursday, 28 May 2009
What am I made of?
Tze Ming Mok, “Race You There”, Landfall 2008, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2004, pp.18-26.
Tze Ming Mok is an Auckland born, New Zealand Chinese writer who has huge a interest in politics, sociology, literature and humanity. Her work often discusses the cultural collection of the contemporary New Zealand populace. In her writing Race You There, she explores what it means to be Asian in New Zealand and her personal experiences are shared as an example.
As an immigrant from East Asia, I found this article very friendly and familiar. In addition, the concerns about race and culture were interesting in relation to me having a creative practice here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I was born in South Korea and educated and lived in New Zealand for more than half of my life. However, by walking around Auckland city, I still get that same boring question over and over again asking me where I am originally from. May be this is one of the reasons why I still find it a little bit difficult to blend in here? I agree with Mok’s view, the Asian label has become a strong collective identifier (22). Being Asian in appearance, I think, has a strong image of appealing as alienated and ‘Asian’ disregarding our life and who we really are.
Mok expresses Asian as invisible by bringing up journalist Phil Vine’s view point, migrants and their children are magical people (22). The word invisible and magical expresses what it meant to be Asian in New Zealand very well, especially at the time of her article was written. Then again, the issues of race and culture have been loosened and the population in New Zealand is now a collection of diverse immigrants creating a multicultural society. Within this system, it deals with the concept of originality, collecting and re-contextualisation. Comparing myself with artefacts in Clifford’s article On Collecting Art and Culture, I could consider myself as globalization in terms of object. I was removed from my original package and collected and collaged into a new field of culture. For me, 'belong' or 'don’t belong' is really not a big issue anymore. Instead of my desire to categorize myself into a complex situation, I see myself as cross-boundaries between two cultures like in broken boundaries of painting and sculpture in a contemporary field. I believe my identity and originality are inseparable and so as with my cultural environment in my life now which creates who I am.
Clifford, James. "On Collecting Art and Culture." The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth- Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambrigde, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988. 215-251.
Mok, Tze Ming. "Race You There." Landfall 208, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2004. 18-26.
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I like your assertion that your identity and originality are inseparable, and also your willingness to acknowledge that identity can become a layered, complicated thing. People like to try to make a persons ethnic identity into one thing but even a person like me who is descended from representatives of every country in the united kingdom is actually a mix of people who had separate customs and languages. Of course I definitely fit the description of Pakeha, being a 5 or 6th generation NZer so that mix has in a way settled into a comfortable, generally recognised new ethnicity. If we look at the history of art and music we find that 'new' things happen often at intersections between existing cultures. People who find themselves in uncomfortable positions in relation to existing traditions often very naturally find new ways to do things because the old traditions can not completely express their own situation.
ReplyDeleteAbout the frustration of still being asked "where are you from?": I think it makes people ask that because of our accents not the way we look like. The only people who thought I was Pakeha were not from Europe or New Zealand and their English seemed worse then mine :) It's about the perception of the Other. I'm not sure what the term Pakeha means for Maori, but I'm guessing it should also include newer immigrants of races other than Caucasian. And if not, they could have a different term for non-Europeans, but that would make them seem too racist. I find the term New Zealand European rather odd too and I think it was chosen in an attempt to avoid racism. Caucasian would be racist, but European refers more to different merged cultures from Europe, rather than looks.
ReplyDeleteAs a non New Zealander, I think the question "where are you originally from?" is an interesting one. Perhaps it stems from an uncertainty from whoever asks. I think everyone is feeling the ground shake with change (and has been the last 30 - 50 years in terms of globalization) and getting a grasp of where oneself is from and where others are from is important to people to be able to determin their own identity personally and as a nation. Perhaps?
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