Hello all, and allow me to introduce myself to the World! My name is Jeffrey, and welcome to my blog for our journey of Canadian Studies! Born in Richmond, BC but raised in Maple Ridge, one could consider me more of the ‘Canadian’ than ‘Chinese’ in my Canadian-Chinese identity. I grew up a country boy if you ask me, playing hockey outside until midnight and fly fishing during spring breaks. Who am I? Hockey lover, but all sports enthusiast. Retail sales associate, badminton coach and student. Theatre goer and film buff. Pun and wordplay aficionado. There’s more to me, but that’s for later!
I was automatically intrigued by this course, particularly at the intersections between cultures and identities that Canadian studies lends itself to studying. Am I cheering for Canada’s national hockey team only because I am geographically located in Canada? I am after all…Chinese?! A couple previous classes sparked my interest in examining ideas around the construction of a ‘Canadian’ identity, if there is such a thing.
Firstly, I am reminded of a film I was introduced to called “Between: Living in the Hyphen” , that outlines and examines some of the frameworks and concepts relating to a construction of what it means to be ‘Canadian’. Coming from an immigrant family, but identifying as ‘Canadian’, living between two identities is something many of us struggle with day in and day out. Take a look at the film if you have time!
Secondly, I was immediately taken aback to a course I completed in the area of Canadian Theatre, looking at different plays through a timeline by Canadian playwrights, all concerned with ideas of a ‘Canadianess’. My favourite play in our canon of studies was Ins Choi’s “Kim’s Convenience”, about an immigrant family that owns a convenience store and their familial struggles, along with cultural issues and differences surrounding race and gender. The comedic and touching story of this family sparks an interest in me in relation to a sense of story-telling that constructs not only self-identity, but belonging to a ‘national identity’. Particularly, Choi was interested in documenting a story out of countless, about immigrant families and their experiences in Canada.
Ins Choi (Playwright of “Kim’s Convenience) is pictured between his two flags of identity: Korea and Canada. Living in the hyphen?
Both the film and play that I relate this course to relates to a sense of identity formation or discovery as a ‘Canadian’, guided mostly by stories and experiences. These first hand stories from immigrants and ultimately all habitants of Canada can help us begin an organic learning process of what it means to be a ‘Canadian’. This course, and hopefully this blog, I expect will give me (and all of us) an idea of what that means to each and every one of us!
Works Cited:
Derdeyn, Stuart. “Kim’s Convenience and the Immigrant Experience”. The Province. 23 April 2014. Web. 7 January 2015.
Kozak, Nick. “Ins Choi, on the set of his play Kim’s Convenience last year, will take part in Spur Toronto, leading a theatrical walk around the U of T campus on Saturday”. Photograph. The Star. 11 April 2013. Web. 7 January 2015.
Nakagawa, Anne Marie. “Between: Living in the Hyphen”. National Film Board. 2005. Web. 7 January 2015.
Hello Jeff, good to meet you – while this course centres more on the intersections between colonizing literature and Indigenous stories — than on hyphenated identities, I think you will find the source of much of our “Canadian identity issues” inside this intersection.Thank you for the link to In Between – looks interesting, I will try to watch on my lunch break today. I look forward to your contributions to our course of studies. Thanks