Returning back from Winter Break to enter the new year of 2014, we immediately dived right back into the discovery of life narratives. Starting with the film we watched in class Between: Living on the Hyphen, where various speakers spoke about their racial identity as mixed race people living in Canada where it is suppose to be a place that celebrates multiculturalism. Yet, in their everyday lives the question of authenticity hovers over them as a burden, knowing that being mixed they will always be living “in between” different ethnicities. As an individual continuously progress throughout life, change is inevitable whether that be personality, beliefs, values, and other factors towards building one’s identity. But at the end of the day, one thing that doesn’t change is our  biological identity- DNA. Just because we look a certain way, we are automatically perceived a particular way and sometimes these perception or meaning we attach to the way one looks, their ethnicity, race, and other labels can be hurtful  More or less, it’s a generalization made not only against that individual but an entire group. However, that is not to say that first impressions don’t count, I would think that it’s important and despite the fact that we may occasionally and unconsciously assume something about someone due to the way they look; there should be a voice to remind us that there shouldn’t be a leap to a conclusion without knowing the life narratives of that particular individual.

The film raises all sorts of abstractions but I extracted in my opinion the most interesting ones which are ethnicity and nationality. Referring back to the film again, the speakers spoke of their multiple ethnicities, only goes further to prove that the world is becoming more globalized where racial and ethnic boundaries are being crossed. This in turn, creates diversity in the people we meet. The world we live seems to be constantly dependent and craving for creativity,innovation, and modernization through the means of technology. Pop culture is an example whether it be the latest songs exploring new genres in combining sounds and words, creativity in music videos, fresh storylines in movies and tv shows, etc. However, what this all means is that we are trying to seek differences instead of the same things over and over again. If by mixing ethnicities we can become more understanding and accepting towards different cultures then perhaps one day multiculturalism will be a global value.

On the other hand, nationality helps to build a sense of belonging and acceptance into society.  Even if racial and ethnic differences keep us separate, there is always something like a nation that keeps us together. On a smaller scale of society, the UBC campus (any sort of community or local environment works as well) serves like a nation to link us together. Students locally, nationally and globally come onto the campus to form  a community. From one stranger to the next, it just feels good to know that at least we have one thing in common and that is we are students of UBC.

We are also in the process of studying Diamond Grill by Fred Wah, who was one of the featured speaker in the film as well. In Wah’s “biotext” he describes instances of both his ethnicities and nationality. Although, Fred Wah is a mixture of different ethnicities (Swedish, Irish, Scottish), he relates most prominently to his Chinese ethnicity through mentioning food recipes and the delights of having a Chinese influence culture while growing up. At the same time his racial appearance was a privilege to be considered as more Canadian, whilst his other relatives who look more Chinese would be marginalized and discriminated against.Therefore, Wah’s emphasis that Diamond Grill fits under the genre of biotext justifies his position and take on what it was like to be a Chinese Canadian since it is from his perspective and may not necessarily apply to others who in comparison may not have been as privileged to create their own personal story.

Lastly, whether it was in the film Between: Living on the Hyphen or Diamond Grill, the question of what it means to be Canadian and to have a Canadian citizenship seems to be a different definition for everyone who considers themselves to be Canadian (including me). However, I think that for immigrants it is definitely much more complicated and this instance was evident in Diamond Grill for Fred Wah’s father who went through phases of relocation, dislocation in China and when he comes back he is no longer recognized as a Canadian citizen despite being born in Canada (p. 10). Also, the feeling of languageless and lacking the power to communicate in English added to the burden of having to rediscover an identity for himself in the new context. This can be related to the conditions that immigrants experience in present day where the lack of the English or French language (depending on which part of Canada the immigrants settle in) gives them an economic disadvantage in terms of employment. Furthermore, the importance of language as a factor in having a sense of belong to a nation “plays a critical role in the social integration of immigrants and their young children”.

To end this discussion, it is also interesting to look at how some people abuse Canadian citizenship and that once again the question of what it means to be a Canadian citizen is put up for debate. Is it enough proof to say hey look I have a Canadian passport or as Immigration Minister Chris Alexander say that the “only one way of truly understanding what it means to be Canadian, what it means to participate in Canadian life, and that is by living here.” In my opinion, the question of Canadian citizenship is similar to what it means to be a global citizen, where the is no definite meaning but should be interpreted by the way you see yourself as a human responding to the environment around you whether that be to local, national or global issues. I for one, as a Canadian and Global citizen, find myself still in the midst of discovering a position that I can take to be able to fully utilize my skills to make a difference in society.