Identity Hybridity And Cultural Home

The Chinese have been one of the oldest and largest ethnic communities across the world with well over 35 million people living overseas. Despite their relatively large cultural distance from the host countries, and the ordeals faced by generations of Chinese immigrants due to stereotypes, prejudice, and racism, many have adjusted remarkably well economically and socially in their new country. But how do generations of Chinese immigrants reconcile seemingly incompatible demands from home and host cultures to negotiate bicultural or multicultural identities? Identity, Hybridity and Cultural Home explores the multifaceted concept of cultural identity to uncover the meaning of cultural home for Chinese immigrants in multicultural environments. It questions the conventional notion of a stable and secure cultural identity, challenges the common conception of bilingualism and biculturalism, analyses hybrid identities, and identifies directions for future research on the critical issue of searching for a cultural home in a multicultural society.

An exploration of the burgeoning field of Anglophone Asian diaspora poetry, this book draws on the thematic concerns of Hong Kong, Asian-American and British Asian poets from the wider Chinese or East Asian diasporic culture to offer a transnational understanding of the complex notions of home, displacement and race in a globalised world. Located within current discourse surrounding Asian poetry, postcolonial and migrant writing, and bridging the fields of literary and cultural criticism with author interviews, this book provides close readings on established and emerging Chinese diasporic poets' work by incorporating the writers' own reflections on their craft through interviews with some of those featured. In doing so, Jennifer Wong explores the usefulness and limitations of existing labels and categories in reading the works of selected poets from specific racial, socio-cultural, linguistic environments and gender backgrounds, including Bei Dao, Li-Young Lee, Marilyn Chin, Hannah Lowe and Sarah Howe, Nina Mingya Powles and Mary Jean Chan. Incorporating scholarship from both the East and the West, Wong demonstrates how these poets' experimentation with poetic language and forms serve to challenge the changing notions of homeland, family, history and identity, offering new evaluations of contemporary diasporic voices.

This edited book highlights the identities and practices of ethnically diverse families and schools in contexts where multicultural policies are not always a priority. In an era of globalization and ensuing population mobility, it places a focus on Asia-Pacific, a continent with diverse customs, populations, and languages, but grapples with what it might mean to be multicultural. The book features studies and frameworks that illustrate how minoritized communities engage with the diversity they live in and strategies in adjusting and adapting to their sociocultural environments, including practices that might support these efforts. This book represents initiatives and interdisciplinary scholarship from Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, which underscore the intersection of identities, cultural values, efforts, conflicts, and religions in making diversity work in their contexts. Collectively, these works make a unique contribution by invigorating debates on the flows and evolvement of cultural values and practices within and across families and institutions. This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners, and readers with interest in the current state of cultural diversity among minoritized families in Asia-Pacific and beyond.

Why is it still so difficult to negotiate differences across cultures? In what ways does racism continue to strike at the foundations of multiculturalism? Bringing together some of the world's most influential postcolonial theorists, this classic collection examines the place and meaning of cultural hybridity in the context of growing global crisis, xenophobia and racism. Starting from the reality that personal identities are multicultural identities, Debating Cultural Hybridity illuminates the complexity and the flexibility of culture and identity, defining their potential openness as well as their closures, to show why anti-racism and multiculturalism are today still such hard roads to travel.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: 2,3, Maastricht University, course: Cultural Diversity and Gender in Global Perspective, language: English, abstract: Nowadays it is easy and cheap for Europeans to travel around the world and even to migrate to a new country. On these trips we can gather a lot of experiences and impressions from different cultures which can have an impact on our identities and values. But we don't need to travel far away to recognize that moving and migrating is possible and happening. Especially our western multicultural societies are attracting people from all over the world to work and live here. These migrants also gather experiences and maybe shift their values and build up a hybrid identity. But not all people want to give up their identity. They want to stay in line with the values of their home country. The question is, whether a hybrid identity can also be a national one, or if a conflict is unavoidable. In this paper I will argue, that there are tensions between the two types of identities. To show this, I will first explain multiculturalism and hybrid identities. By introducing nationalism and accordingly national identities in the second paragraph I will explain the points of conflict between the concepts. At the end there is a conclusion.

In response to the cultural challenges in society and scholarship, this handbook presents the conceptions, assumptions, principles, methods, topics and issues in the studies of cultural forms of human communication—cultural discourses—by experts from around the world. A culturalist programme in communication studies (CS), cultural discourse studies (CDS), as represented in this handbook, is a new current of thought in human and social science and a form of academic activism, but above all, it is a fresh paradigm of research committed to enhancing cultural harmony and prosperity on the one hand and facilitating intellectual plurality and innovation on the other hand. This handbook is the first of its kind; it is concerned with the identities of, and interactions between, the world’s diverse cultural communities through locally-grounded and globally-minded, culturally conscious and critical approaches to their communicative practice. Contributors apply such insights, precepts and techniques, not merely to discover and describe past and present communication, but also to design and guide future communication. This handbook is ideal for scholars and students interested in cultural aspects and issues of communication/discourse, as well as researchers of other fields looking to apply cultural discourse methods to their own projects.

This handbook takes a multi-disciplinary approach to offer a current state-of-art survey of intercultural communication (IC) studies. The chapters aim for conceptual comprehension, theoretical clarity and empirical understanding with good practical implications. Attention is mostly on face to face communication and networked communication facilitated by digital technologies, much less on technically reproduced mass communication. Contributions cover both cross cultural communication (implicit or explicit comparative works on communication practices across cultures) and intercultural communication (works on communication involving parties of diverse cultural backgrounds). Topics include generally histories of IC research, theoretical perspectives, non-western theories, and cultural communication; specifically communication styles, emotions, interpersonal relationships, ethnocentrism, stereotypes, cultural learning, cross cultural adaptation, and cross border messages;and particular context of conflicts, social change, aging, business, health, and new media. Although the book is prepared for graduate students and academicians, intercultural communication practitioners will also find something useful here.

Written by a team of international scholars from China, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK, this book provides interdisciplinary studies on the construction and transformation of Chinese national identity in the age of globalisation. It addresses a wide range of issues central to national identity in the context of Chinese culture, politics, economy and society, and explores a diverse set of topics including the formation of an embryonic form of national identity in the late Qing era, the influence of popular culture on national identity, globalisation and national identity, the interaction and discourse between ethnic identity and national identity, and identity construction among overseas Chinese. It highlights the latest developments in the field and offers a distinctive contribution to our knowledge and understanding of national identity. ​