“What part of our “hyphenated identity” are we going to assume; why pick a particular aspect of this identity as opposed to the other?”

Francis Toselli’s questions present highly relevant points of navigation regarding living in hyphenated space. Many of the life narrative blogs this week engage in this cultural negotiation, focusing on the themes of the hyphen and hybridity. This is explored not only in the context of Fred Wah’s experiences in Diamond Grill, but also through the form of his biotext and through our classmates own experiences of mixed-identity.

Wah’s navigation of living on the hyphen is not only the content of Diamond Grill, but also in the form in which the biotext is written. In the way that form is largely disjointed, rhythmic, and non-chronological, this speaks to the disjointed and confused identity that Wah grapples with through this hyphenated space. Both Stephanie Wood and Jennifer Palfery allude to this unconventional structure as a way of perhaps accepting and resisting hybridization. Stephanie’s work  “Show, Don’t Tell in Life Narratives” suggests that Diamond Grill “encourages engagement and confusion in the reader simultaneously”, just as the hyphen is a space of engagement and confusion. In Jennifer “The Hybridity of Sound Prose”, she also suggests how Wah’s writing style creates a “sound prose” that defies traditional structure. She says, “just as Wah focuses on cultural and racial hybridity in Diamond Grill, he ultimately translates these notions into the structure of his bio-textual prose through musical and literary hybridization”. Wah’s hyphenated or hybridized space is manifested in both content and form throughout the biotext.

The notion of the hyphen has also been extended to personal experiences of many individuals who can relate with Wah’s hybridized identity. Both Jane Shi and Sunny Chen‘s posts connect with Wah’s struggle to be neither fully Chinese or fully Canadian. For Sunny, she alludes to her sense of Chinese culture through food just as Wah does, stating how her grandmother’s cooking “shucks off my acculturated mask” . Furthermore, Jane’s post reveals how she, too, has a “jarring relationship with Chinese-ness, belonging, place, and nationality”, revealing her connection to how Wah both resists and reclaims the hyphenated space.

On the other hand, Ed Koo’s post reveals perhaps a greater connection with Fred Wah Sr., who is able to move seamlessly between two cultural realms. Ed’s post “Standing in My Doorways” suggests that his Canadian and Korean cultural identities are both complete and liberating, rather than limiting. Unlike Wah, Ed’s hybridized cultural identity does not exclude him from being either Canadian or Korean, but instead includes him in both cultural realms.

By placing the hyphen in the broader context of form and others experiences, this demonstrates how malleable and vast this in-between space is. As I see many of my classmates negotiating this in-between space, it is interesting to ponder whether this in between identity is what unites us as Canadians? Ashoke Dasgupta’s work “Hyphenated Canadians” indicates that with many Canadians clinging onto our “earlier ethnic underpinnings”, it allows us to affiliate in some ways with many different groups, which may be to our advantage. This complex display of mixed cultures and ethnicities is a mechanism to unite us and ignite greater cultural interaction.

As Fred Wah states “The hyphen always seems to demand negotiation.” Perhaps we are better off negotiating on the hyphen.

Works Cited

Chen, Sunny. “Throughout High School, My Grandmother Packed Warm Chinese Food in Thermos for my Lunch.” The Word Processor. UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 26 Sept, 2014.

Dasgupta, Ashoke. “Hyphenated Canadians.” New Canadian. 27 Sept, 2014. http://www.newcanadian.com/images/summer05/pdf/10-13.pdf

Koo, Ed. “Standing In My Doorways.” Ed Koo’s Amazing Blog. UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 27 Sept, 2014.

Palfery, Jennifer. “The Hybridity of Sound Prose.” Contemporary Literature (English 474). UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 26 Sept, 2014.

Shi, Jane. “Reclaiming the Hyphen, Resisting Hyphenation.” Jane Shi’s 474F Blog. UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 26 Sept, 2014.

So, Leona. “To Be Chinese-Canadian.” Speak. UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 27 Sept, 2014.

Toselli, Francis. “Hyphenated Identities: Past and Present.” WisdombyFrancis. UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 27 Sept, 2014.

Wah, Fred. Diamond Grill. Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2006. Print.

Wood, Stephanie. “Show, Don’t Tell in Life Narratives.” Autobiography as Social Action. UBC Blogs. 25 Sept, 2014. Web. 26 Sept, 2014.

As Marshall McLuhan, a cornerstone figure in media theory, discussed in his 1964 work on the evolution of media forms, “the medium is the massage”. While this work predates the creation of the Internet and Facebook by nearly three decades, his predictions regarding the way in which the media form, rather than content, has the ability to generate meaning is highly relevant in today’s web-driven society. By examining Facebook as a media form, it is evident how the rules that govern that media tailor the way in which we conduct and present our online selves, shaping the messages that develop our Facebook identities and life narratives.

Facebook’s platform is highly socially constructed. As discussed by Marianne Leonardi’s work on “Narrative as Self Performance: The Rhetorical Construction of Identities on Facebook Profiles,” she suggests that, “the structure of Facebook constrains and enables the communication of messages and as a result, content is either included or excluded” (28). A key characteristic of Facebook’s web platform that illustrates this is the timeline feature, which steers users into answering personal questions in a highly tailored manor, as well as favouring certain types of information over others. For example, the concept of the “like” button largely compels users into presenting information about themselves that is like-worthy and that will spur further engagement from other Facebook users. As a result, the moments or stories presented on our profiles constrain our lives narratives to these extraordinary life moments or positive endeavours, neglecting the authentic realities that may occur in our day-to-day lives.

In the context of Carolyn Miller’s work “Genre as Social Action,” the rules that govern Facebook create exigencies amongst users in which we feel socially compelled to write about certain ideas or in ways that fulfill specific expectations or needs related to the media form. This is demonstrated in the “work and education” section of timeline, in which Facebook asks you to fill in where you went to university, studied abroad, and past jobs you’ve had. These questions largely reinforce specific values of a western, elite, wealthy society, further limiting the information that is being presented. Yochai Benkler in his work theoretical work, Wealth of Networks, demonstrates that these limits are largely informed by the “sociocultural business context into which they were introduced,” causing communications media to “take on certain social roles” and “structures of control” (369). As Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg and a group of white, privileged, highly educated individuals, the values of Facebook are manifested in its form, which, in turn, shape the messages that users create. Therefore, by narrowing our life narratives online to these “cultural scripts of success”, the medium itself is fundamentally shaping the messages we are relaying to our audience.

As we move into an age in which we govern much of our lives over cyberspace, the creation of our life narratives online becomes increasingly prevalent. Facebook’s platform demonstrates how our stories largely interact with the media itself, shaping and constraining our own life narratives in significant ways. Perhaps McLuhan was right all along.

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