It has never occurred to me that Mestizos play such an important part in Latin America, which “make up the majority of the population in half of the countries of Latin America” (According to The World Factbook from Wikipedia). Such a large number of people can create a new culture after all, since it is almost impossible for an individual to embody two different cultures separately. They’ll definitely be influenced by Spanish or European culture and indigenous culture, but not merely become either of them. As Peter Wade argued that mestizaje is a lived process,”the relationship between inclusion and exclusion…can be understood as the interweaving of two processes, both of which have symbolic and structural reality. These, in turn, constitute a mosaic, at the level of the embodied person and the family as well as the nation”. And I think it would keep its status of dynamic change, especially in today’s trend of globalization. The inclusion and exclusion, particularly between the elite and the subaltern, the whiteness and the indigenousness and blackness, would remain a long time. But that’s maybe what this new culture looks like.
Vasconcelos mentioned Darwin’s doctrine of natural selection in his book, which preserves the fittest and dooms the weak, in order to interpret his future cosmic race. This reminded me of what I learnt in my history lessons. In late 19th century, Chinese ideologist Fu Yan wrote a book called 天演論, which was a translation of Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics, in order to introduce Darwin’s ideas and arouse the people from ignorance to fight against the invasion of imperialism. The turn of the 19th and 20th century was a key point to Chinese people, since they had lost several wars with the imperialism and signed several unequal treaties. Then I wondered why Vaconcelos wrote this book. Later I found that he has been called the “cultural caudillo” of the Mexican Revolution. Maybe his purpose was similar with Fu Yan in some ways.
And I also thought about the situation in China, whether there are “Mestizos” in China. From Wikipedia, I found that “China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total population. And it is the world’s largest single ethnic group. Ethnic minorities account for about only 8.49% of the population of China, but still 118,880,332 according to the 2010 census. The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the United States (71,493) and Japan (66,159), but only 1,448 were Naturalized Citizen”.
According to the data and maybe the history, we will find the Han Chinese is an inclusive ethnic group which can hardly be assimilated. And more and more ethnic minorities are being assimilated, losing their own culture and becoming a “Han Chinese” thoroughly. That’s not a lived process of mixture, but a process of disappearance. And the people who stick to their culture and ethnic groups usually live a tough life in the rural areas. The people who leave for the cities usually have to behave like a “citizen”, just like two of my classmates who are of ethnic minorities, you are never likely to tell them from the Han Chinese unless they tell you personally. That’s really a complex problem.
But when the Han Chinese go abroad, the situation changes. Some of them are assimilated, others remain some elements of the Chinese culture, not the entire one. But these elements will be magnified. Just like the Chinese New Year Parade in Vancouver’s Chine town, you can hardly find such kind of activities in China’s big cities. (Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with the Chinese abroad, so can’t talk more.)
Recently I heard a piece of strange news, reported that some people in the South China, usually living close to the border, are buying brides from Southeast Asia, especially from Vietnam. Only ¥50,000(about CAD$ 10,000) can bring you back a girl to be your wife. And this has already formed a industry chain. That’s really a terrible story. I think the inequality of economic development can be a reason. The department concerned should take action because it is illegal.
What’s more, the casta paintings are interesting.