Before coming into university I always knew who I was, my identification and my role in society. I’m a born and raised Canadian and generally I’ve always accepted this broad identification. Over the course of my life however, others consider my identification with Canada as wrong. I’ve been told that I am Chinese because the blood that flows through my veins is of Chinese heritage. This concept always blurred my understanding of the words belonging and identification, but never enough for me to question my citizenship. After Three weeks of courses focused around the idea of global citizenship, I now understand that it is possible to be of both identifications.
The idea of home and belonging came up multiple times in many of my different classes but it wasn’t until after I watched Pico Iyer’s Ted Talk entitled “Where is home” that I realized the validity of the different dimensions of belonging to a place. Perhaps home can be identified as a culture. In this case I would come from a divided world. I practice not only Canadian culture but also Chinese culture. This definition raises the question, “where do I belong?” I don’t know if I am Canadian, Chinese or neither? I wonder if there is a possibility that I could be both? If I am both I would consider myself as a Chinese Canadian rather than leaning towards one or the other culture. With this term “Chinese Canadian” being assimilated more regularly into daily language, I wonder if this term is strong enough to stand on its own and to compete against terms such as “Canadian” or “Chinese” as more and more people are growing up in mixed culture backgrounds.
On it’s own, the term “Chinese Canadian” adds to the complex idea of globalization. As this amalgamation of cultures is happening, the argument against it is the lose of original cultures. On page 32 of Farhat Shahzad’s essay entitled The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning, Shahzad quotes a 19 year old immigrant from Sri Lanka, stating that his mother would always get asked to give the Canadian community her Canadian name. What constitutes a Canadian name and what are the criteria’s for it to be considered Canadian? The most simple criteria that I can think of is that it must use the english alphabet. In that case, could a name originating elsewhere be converted into a Canadian name by writing out the pronunciations of the original name with english letters? I believe that this would be a good way to incorporate different cultures into the community but also preserve heritage. I would like to think that this is a plausible strategy for globalization to prosper but also preserving individual heritage.
Having gone to an international school for my elementary education, I met a lot of friends who had a Japanese first name and an English middle name, or vice versa. I don’t have a middle name in the sense of having a second first name but I have a Japanese first name, and whenever I am not in Japan, people almost always notice it even if they can’t identify as Japanese. On the other hand, I have a very Western last name, Hewitt. (Interestingly enough, my great-grandfather changed his last name to Hewitt after he moved his family to the States in order to have a more “American-sounding” last name.)
Since I strongly identify culturally as Japanese, it is fitting for me to have a very Japanese first name. I felt able to reaffirm the Japanese part of my identity, despite having lived overseas, in large part due to not having a Western first name. I think you start a really interesting discussion on global citizenship and the importance of names in connection to identity in this blog post.