Lord’s Prayer to Stay at Queen’s Park

Looks like tradition has won this time.

Chinese Adoptees Celebrate Bat Mitzvah

This article was in the New York Times a little over a year ago.  I find it very interesting how the North American public views religion.  No one bats an eye at Chinese Catholics (adopted or biological) - there’ll never be a lifestyle story about a Chinese adoptee in an Italian or Irish American family celebrating her First Communion or Confirmation - but being Jewish is another story.  To many people, it’s still unusual.  This article mentions it as well:  Often, an Asian (or non-white) Jew may walk into Hillel with a white person who is, say, Episcopalian, the white Episcopalian is thought of as the Jew.  Why is this?  The lack of missionaries?

More on religion…..

If someone of a one religion is uncomfortable with images of a different religion, what happens if a relative studies religious art? Do you disown them?

Momma McGuinty, Conservative Jewish Leader think Dalton McGuinty is crazy

His angry mom, a conservative Jew and even e-mails from thousands of Ontarians (so many, in fact, that it’s crashed their system) isn’t stopping Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, from having second thoughts about the Ontario government’s proposal to get rid of the Lord’s Prayer. Should Mr. McGuinty and his people be listnening to the people of Ontario and focus on more serious issues like poverty, healthcare and the economy rather than changing tradition? Just because it isn’t your country or culture’s tradition, doesn’t mean that it’s someone else’s tradition. The politically correct, which is, unfortunately A LOT of people (politicians or non) today (at least the public person), seems to want to get rid of old English Canadian traditions, yet include old traditions of other cultures, which can be just as “exclusive” to a culture or cultures. I don’t understand why a non-Christian can complain about something like the Lord’s Prayer, yet if I complained about another religion’s prayer, then I’m anti-something or other. It’s not fair.

Toronto Star article

Formerly Restricted Clubs - OK or Not OK?

I had a bit of a debate with my boyfriend yesterday. He’s Jewish, I’m Chinese (and Catholic). At one time, neither of us would have been given membership at many (if not all) golf & country clubs (and many other membership organizations, including some women’s associations) in Canada and in many other parts of the world. In some cases, we wouldn’t even have been allowed in as guests. In the past twenty or so years, many have loosened up their membership rules and have begun accepting non-WASP members. To many Chinese Canadians (at least Hong Kong Canadians), including myself, what’s in the past is in the past, and if they’re welcome now, why not. This doesn’t seem to ring true with a lot of Jewish people. My boyfriend even said that some of his family members would be downright uncomfortable if they find out that they’re guests at a formerly restricted club. Probably even more uncomfortable if they find out that a Jewish family member is seeking membership (perhaps even thinking that they’re selling out? Who knows!).

Does this have to do with colonialism in Hong Kong? Members of reciprocal clubs from Hong Kong or Singapore who immigrate to Canada seeking membership? The lack of wealthier Chinese Canadians in the past (pre-70s), meaning fewer predominantly Chinese organizations? From the Jewish perspective, is it because most Jews in North America are white, and because their race is invisible, then it makes it more uncomfortable (and if that’s the case, can’t you say the same about being Catholic? I’ve heard stories about Rose Kennedy being blackballed from the Junior League of Boston because she was Catholic (and Irish?). I’m pretty sure that today, the Junior League of Boston has lots and lots of Catholic members.)

What do you think, readers?

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.

Students at Religious Schools who are of Different Religions

As you’ve probably read in previous posts, high school was (and still is) affiliated with the Anglican Church of Canada. We had to go to regular services, regardless of what our faith.  Our services weren’t overtly religious, though hymns were sung, prayers said and Scripture read.  Parents send their kids to the school knowing that services are a part of the school’s culture, so they generally don’t have a problem with it.  The people who DO have issues are outsiders.  Some are even SHOCKED to hear that say, Muslim or Jewish parents would even think about sending their kid there.  They seem to think religion first, academics second. Is religion really more important than what the kid learns in school?  Except for two years of religious education in Grades 7 and 8, nothing outside of mandatory services is religious based.  Do people automatically think “religious school” as soon as they hear about mandatory services?  Just because a school has historical connections to a church doesn’t mean that it’s a true “religious school.”  Schools under the Roman Catholic school board are probably more religious than my alma mater, and these schools, at least the high schools aren’t really religious!  In fact, the school often has “talks” or presentations by students and staff who are of different faiths.  It was very normal for us.  In any case, many “traditional” private schools tend to have some sort of connection to a church.  Even those that don’t, such as Toronto’s Upper Canada College, still has a school hymn and/or prayer.  I guess people need to do their homework!

Tibet and China poll at Prospere Magazine

Prospere Magazine is asking whether making Tibet a Special Administrative Region (SAR) is a good idea…

Oh dear, more “white westernized beauty” and culture posts at Racialicious!

Today, it’s on the updated version of Sweet Valley High. OK, so Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are slightly-above-average-height, slim, blonde twins. So? They’re supposed to be stereotypical California girls (except that Elizabeth is smart-LOL) So they’ve changed the “perfect size six” reference to size four….ummm…ever heard of vanity sizing?

But back to the whole ethnicity thing.  One thing I’m really sick and tired of in the ethnic blogs is the rant (and it’s always a rant…not that this one ISN’T…but it’s just that it’s the same, pretty much 100% of the time) of the so-called “white” standard of beauty.  OK, so the blonde hair, blue eyes, etc are standard, but  as I’ve emphasized in the Images of Asian Women post, fair skin is NOT a white standard.  And I call BULLSHIT to anyone who says that the standard was further reinforced with colonialism.  I’m sorry, but whitening products would STILL be in the market in Asia if Europeans never came.  But most of those posters don’t get it or see that it could happen.  Any person of Asian descent who actually believes that darker skin would be considered okay in Asia if colonialism never happened must not know much about their cultures’ standards in history.  Most (if not all) considered lighter skin as a standard of beauty as it was a symbol of being upper class.  If you’re dark, it’s because you had to work outside.  Light skin=life of leisure. INDOORS.  It was the same over in the west until the twentieth century when people started to vacation in warmer locales.  DUH!

Interracial relationships are briefly mentioned.  In one novel, Steven, the twins’ older brother, dates a black girl.  I’ve never read this book, but apparently they dated as according to the entry, “they were only together to make a social statement. What an enlightening commentary on why people enter interracial relationships. They do so to rebel, not because they actually care about each other.”  Whether this was the case or not, plenty of young people date outside of their race/religion/culture/ etc just to make a statement.  Anyway…

Also, the post goes on about a Latina character being embarrassed about her family and tells everyone her granny is her housekeeper.  Well, guess what, folks?  Lots of teens and even adults have issues with their family, especially if the family doesn’t fit into what most people consider “normal.”  That’s why some people dont’ talk to their families once they turn 18.  It doesn’t have to be an ethnicity thing.  Remember the 80s sitcom, Family Ties?  The eldest son, Alex, thought his hippie parents were really, really odd and didn’t fit his Reagan-era conservativeness.  And why shouldn’t it be addressed?  There ARE people like that.  Is that so wrong?  Why can’t a teenager have issues with her family?  Do stories for kids have to make things so “perfect” and white-washed?  Do all non-WASP characters have to fit some sort of bill and love and embrace their ethnicity?  What does that mean, anyway?

BTW, I’d like to see a revised version of Twins too….I recall a book published around 1988/1989 where Sweet Valley Middle School celebrates its 25th Anniversary and the twins go to a 60s party……wouldn’t it be cool to see an updated version of the book where the girls go to an 80s party???  I think Jessica would want to look like Madonna.

Most Canadians Believe that (New) Minorities are “Coddled” by Government: Poll

Two posts today!

This was published in the Globe and Mail today. And yeah, I agree with this too, and I’m non-white. It makes people like me feel out of place. I’m not seen by many white Canadians as “Canadian”, yet I don’t “fit in” with so-called “minorities” because my family is:

• Not all that “old country” (most Hong Kong Canadians aren’t, anyway…at least not compared to lots of South Asian communities in Canada)
• Not really “marginalized” (hey, I’m a suburban raised girl who went to private school, took piano and skating lessons, went to summer camp and Brownies/Guides. How is that MARGINALIZED/NOT PRIVILEGED?)

I can’t be alone. There are lots of people like me, and the government, media, etc, never talk about it. They only stick to so-called “liberal” white people who openly embrace differences, new Canadians who clamour for acceptance (and both these groups criticize people like me who have embraced “mainstream” culture, even if this “mainstream” culture was integrated into the “old country” culture for decades, such as say, wearing a white wedding gown (white is the traditional colour of mourning in China, yet the vast majority of Hong Kong and Singapore brides will wear white)) and well, white supremacists/good ol’ boys (not to be confused with the Old Boys Network….VERY DIFFERENT, PEOPLE. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.)

The media don’t understand or at least, care to understand that there are people who just don’t care. There are people out there who have no issues with so-called “mainstream” culture, yet we are silenced by radicals and people who have a so-called “open mind.” Banning holiday concerts that mention Christmas (yet embracing other religions who have some sort of celebration around the same time of year) is wrong, IMHO. Telling your kid that he or she shouldn’t have done this or that because the kid isn’t from of that religion or culture (which happens to be the “mainstream”) isn’t right either. And for some reason, this happens only in certain parts of Toronto. There were lots of kids at my high school who were not white Protestants, yet no parent had ever criticized service attendance, curriculum, etc…Maybe parents who pay $20+K ($15K when I was there) are just more open-minded or don’t care?

I guess my issue is this:  Once you accommodate, people expect that certain cultures behave that way.  It leads to more issues of ignorance.  Also, then other groups will start asking to be accommodated.  I’m sorry, but what happened to “when in Rome, do as the Romans”?

Can’t wait to see what they say over at Racialicious and Restructure. They probably WON’T agree with me. Most non-white activists don’t.