OMG, Stereotypes!

This is really bad.  I was on the subway the other day and sat next to a girl who had not one, but TWO designer bags (she was *THIS CLOSE* to being a label whore).  I didn’t get a look at her face at first, so I assumed she was one of those Asian girls who highlight their hair and shop at high end stores.  Turned out she was white.  In Toronto and Vancouver, one can find some Asian women (or more specifically, Hong Kong women) who shop at these stores, and sometimes, they’re head-to-toe label.  And these brands have to be big names to them.  For many, Tory Burch isn’t a big enough name.  It has to be Prada, Gucci, LV, Hermes, etc…

Readers, have you mistaken someone for another race/culture/ethnicity based on what he/she was wearing, or what accessories he/she had?

Class and the Hong Kong Canuck - Affected by British Colonialism?

Many Hong Kong Canadians don’t really think about race unless something happens within their own communities, like the SARS issue in 2003. Perhaps it has to do with their comfy, middle class lifestyle. So today’s Racialicious post on Class and Race had me wondering. Would Chinese Canadians from Hong Kong feel the same had the British never arrived? Would they be as successful? So in other words, are they living off the “benefits” of colonialsim? Without the Opium Wars in the 1840s and eventual takeover of Hong Kong proper, Kowloon and the “new territories”, would Hong Kong just be another hick town (as it was back in the day)? I mean, one of the reasons why Hong Kong eventually became so successful was because of communism in China. It was the port between China and the west. In order to get to China, you had to go through Hong Kong. Until recently, if you wanted to get things done cheaply, you had it made in Hong Kong. Had Hong Kong not been a British colony, it would have been absorbed in by the communist government. This means that there’d be no middle man. Hong Kong also received lots of refugees from Shanghai after WWII and many of them were businesspeople. In addition, people in Hong Kong would probably not be all that educated as the educated would likely be from Beijing and Shanghai.

Then there’s immigration. Without the British, Hong Kongers (in general, anyway) who come to Canada, if they can afford to at all, would not be moving into a cushy suburban house so soon after landing. Markham, Ontario and Richmond, British Columbia would probably be very white. This means no Pacific Mall. No yummy Chinese food. Double :-(. Upper middle class Hong Kong Canadians sending their kids to old line prep schools like Upper Canada College or Havergal? Highly unlikely that many would. They wouldn’t be able to afford it, and these schools’ traditions, which are linked to the great old schools of Britain would be completely foreign to them. Most minorities at these schools, at least when I went, were from colonies or former colonies. This is probably why most Hong Kong Canadians are perfectly open to joining and/or participating in organizations and events that would have excluded them years ago. Hong Kong Canadians are, for some reason, more likely to forgive and forget (which is why I’ve had some issues with my boyfriend, who is Jewish).  Hong Kong Canadians also seem to prefer “higher class” things that are seen as “white” by other non-white communities, such as western classical music.  Most Hong Kongers and Hong Kong Canadians take piano and/or violin.  And tennis (so they can play at that country club).  Even guys.  Doing this doesn’t make you white-washed.  Playing electric guitar in a garage band and playing hockey, however, does.  To many HK Canadians, in order to be successful, one must be “accomplished” in that Jane Austeneque (albiet slightly updated) kind of way.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and you never know. What’s done is done, and who knows what could have happened without the Opium Wars? Maybe China would be like Japan rather than a communist country and Hong Kong would still be successful as a “snowbird” destination for seniors in Beijing and Shanghai…flying there to escape the colder winters.

Same Race Intercultural Relationships: Can be difficult!

When I was going through my dry spell of not having a boyfriend, my parents talked about sending me to China to work, and hopefully meet someone there.  Yeah.  Mainland China.  Not Hong Kong.  I’m a suburban-raised Catholic girl from Toronto, you know the kind of kid who went to Brownies and summer camp.  I don’t even SPEAK Mandarin (though I DO speak Cantonese).  Why would I have anything in common with a guy from the mainland, no matter how educated he is?  Even if he has degrees from Harvard or Yale?   While they definitely accept my current relationship status (serious and long term with a white Jewish boy), they somehow fail to understand that when it comes to someone who is from the SAME ethnic group, it really doesn’t mean that you’d have anything in common with them.  Of course, you never have the SAME experience as the person you have a relationship with, but really, you need to have SOME things in common in order for it to work.  You need to compromise in a relationship, and chances are, some of the influences and traditions that I was raised in are so foreign to him (even if he spent several years in this part of the world)  that it would be difficult to compromise.

Having had the influence of immigrant parents who are from a culture where family is very important, I need to be able to communicate effectively with the guy’s family.  As I don’t speak Mandarin, how would I talk to the his parents?  And what if they’re critical of me because they find it odd that someone of Chinese descent doesn’t understand the customs?  I already have a grandmother finds her Canadian-raised grandkids are not “as good” as those who lived in Hong Kong (I heard this through the grapevine, but apparently this grandmother said that I was a barbarian)!  In any case, I often worry about these kinds of relationships.  Are they just looking for a passport?  You never know.

Feminism: A Race Issue, or More Likely, a Cultural Issue?

There are two posts over at Racialicious on race and feminism today, both posted by Latoya. In the first post, called The “Or” versus the “And” - Women of Color and Mainstream Feminism, Latoya starts off talking about a “click moment” in the late 90s, during the height of the Spice Girls’ popularity. At that time, there were plenty of “girl power” t-shirts and other accessories at the mall (I was in university at the time, and a little too old to wear them, though I know plenty of girls who did…..in private. I don’t think too many people born before 1980 or 1981 would ever admit to being a Spice Girls fan, or at least, didn’t back in the late 90s) and Latoya’s “click moment” was when a guy friend asked her “what the fuck” girl power was supposed to mean. Later, Latoya discusses the lack of connectivity because she couldn’t relate to the feminist anthologies. Most, she says, only contain one or two voices of non-white women. But do these women’s voices reflect every non-white woman? How can you say that all non-white people have the same experience? I’ve found that many ethnicity/race blogs seem to group all non-white people together as if the struggle is the same. It isn’t. Even same-race experiences aren’t the same (more about that later.)

The second post is related to the first. Entitled Does Feminism Have to Address Race, this post questions whether mainstream/neutral feminism really understands feminism of other races. Latoya mentions that some feminists discuss women being “weaker” and/or “less capable.” Yet, Latoya has never been labeled as such, because stereotypically, black women have never been seen as “weak.” Latoya also talks about her name. She mentions that “they assume that this name “Latoya Peterson” will manifest into some neck-swiveling straight from the ‘hood stereotype” and that her resume goes straight into the recycling bin. (I could also say that a woman with a very white-sounding name like Katie Smith could have her resume thrown out too. Why? Because her name doesn’t sound serious. Being female and having a “cute” sounding name is not exactly a good thing, career-wise.) So it brings me to this question: Is it therefore not a race issue, but class and/or culture?

We can’t confuse race with culture. It isn’t the same thing. A person’s culture is what he or she absorbs from the community/communities around him/her. A race can be a culture, but a culture can’t be a race. Take for example a married upper middle class Chinese woman from Hong Kong who has two kids. We will call her Liz. Her definition of feminism will likely be very different from an upper middle class Chinese woman (also a mom with two kids) in the United States or Canada (which we’ll call Anne), even though they’re both of Chinese descent. Why? Race/ethnicity aside, it’s much easier for Liz to move up career-wise. Most women in Liz’s situation have hired help at home, as nannies and housekeepers are much more affordable than in the west. Liz is therefore free to stay late at work so she can get things done and move up. Childcare in Anne’s situation, however, costs more. If she uses a daycare center, she has to pick her children up after a certain time, as the place closes (there are some places with extended hours, but how long are they open? Very few are 24/7). Anne may have a nanny, but nannies cost more in this part of the world. She likely has one person who does both the childcare and the cooking/cleaning. I wouldn’t say that both Liz and Anne would have the same views on feminism, would you? They are of the same race, but definitely not of the same culture. Similar cultures in terms of socio-economic class though.

(I have to say that I’ve largely stayed out of women’s studies and feminism because the academic definition, at least in my experience, tend to be very ignorant and generalize too much. They often want things to happen quickly as well. Take professions for example. We know that today, law schools and medical schools tend to be at least 50% female, yet we get statistics that upper levels are still majority men. Most women’s studies departments go on and on about how it needs to be changed to reflect the schools today. But have these ladies ever thought that it’s an age thing? Most of the men in charge of hospitals or are senior partners in law firms are from the baby boom generation or are older. They went to med school or law school at a time when it was still majority male. Since many of these guys haven’t retired yet, why would you expect things to change overnight? There aren’t as many women in their 50s who actually practice law as say, women in their 30s. (Compare the movies The Paper Chase (from the early 70s) to Legally Blonde. I realize that both are fiction, but both are about law school. The main characters in the former movie are predominantly male. Legally Blonde? Elle Woods was certainly not the only woman in her class. There were plenty of others.) Since many women have children and therefore take some time off, it’s very unlikely we’re going to see a 50-50 split any time soon. We may want to see more, but it’s just going to take time. I guess some people are just a little on the impatient side.)