cultural chameleon?

[SunWuKong]

do you think you're a cultural chameleon? how well do you think you can fit in to different cultures?

personally, i think i can fit in pretty well with HKers as well as white people. i can speak accentless (although some friends have told me i do have an accent) English, and i spent a number of years growing up in the States where everybody around me were white, so i'm pretty familiar with how white people are on a personal level. but of course, there'll always be limits to how much i can fit in with white people because i'm not genetically white. i can fit in with HKers because i speak fluent Cantonese and i spent my childhood there as well as worked there for a couple of years as an adult, so i'm also familiar with how HKers are on a personal level.

i can say that before i went back to work in HK, i tended to "switch culture" depending on if i'm around HKers or if i'm around white people. but after working in HK and coming to the States again, i find it more difficult to "switch culture" when i'm around white people. or maybe it's also because i'm older now and more set in my ways. but even though i'm still pretty familiar with how the average white people are, i find that i can relate to them less now.

are you a cultural chameleon?

[AngryABCGirl]

I actually posted a reply to this, and went YW moved to this new thing it disappeared and that made me sad, but I think I have something to contribute now.

Anyway,

[AngryABCGirl]

Anyway I'm an idiot that hits the mouse when I'm not supposed to, but going on, I was doing the college band retreat thing (stop making fun or me :angry:), and the whole thing just struck me as just so American with the whole big rah-rah go beer! atmosphere. But I could fit into it since, a. I am a band nerd and bands are pretty much the same even though my hs band was all asian except for like 5 people and we screamed in Chinese and had hoeish Japanese girls singing Japanese songs, which now that I think about it is so incredibily bizarre, but mostly b. I grew up in America.

I think a like a year or two ago it would have freaked me out since I was one of the dozen or so Asians out of like 200 white people, but I already went through the being freaked out I'm suddenly the only Asian someplace and traveled some more since then so I could deal with it and just have fun.

Literally a few days before I was in Taipei, and I wasn't having any problems there either since I acted a lot like the people there too and had the right accent and knew how to read and speak enough to have normal interaction with people.

But still in both situations I felt a little displaced, and that little uneasy feeling can go along way when you're procrastinating cleaning up your room and you're onlin on the internet and typing late at night...

By the way I move and dress and the way I look and my facial expressiones, I'm obviously not someone who has been living in Taipei all my life. By the way I look I'm obviously can't relate to white people either, and I think at a greater level, I think that's because deep inside I feel like they can't ever relate to me. Like there's that whole uncomfortable silence when I talk about taking Asian American studies classes or Chinese classes or about Asia in general or when certain subtle values clash.

I don't want to refrain from talking about Asia or I guess being Asian because it's a general interest and importance for me and it's been on my mind since I was in Asia the week before but it's just something that the average white American can't get. Then again in Taiwan I'm kind of exotic to them. There's this whole weird thing in the Asia how some people fetishsize and exoticize ABAs. I think it has to due with the same module of human nature of how Americans fetishsize Asian people.

But I don't think I'm conciously switching culture during either situation, I'm still being myself, and unfortunately myself doesn't quite go into both places. Maybe that's why I'm Chinese-American and jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

[AngryABCGirl]

Since I've gone to college, my circle of friends and the type of people with has changed dramatically. I'm finding myself acting more American but still in Chinese thought just to be able to be in the swing of things. I don't know what this makes me, but so far it's working, although I don't exactly like what side of me sitting around someplace in the back somehow.

[SunWuKong]

although I don't exactly like what side of me sitting around someplace in the back somehow.

what do you mean?

anyway, i hope you're learning different perspectives to things because of your college experience.

[AngryABCGirl]

what do you mean?

anyway, i hope you're learning different perspectives to things because of your college experience.

I feel like I'm masquerading as something I"m really not. Although it's pretty effortless to do so.

[SunWuKong]

I feel like I'm masquerading as something I"m really not. Although it's pretty effortless to do so.

well, there you go. don't think about it, just go with the flow. college is a time for new experiences.

[Emperor_Mike]

I can adapt to any social circumstance with any group of people.

[teaz0r]

i adapt easily to different
cultures. i have an international
back ground, having lived in north
america, europe and asia. and i
was enrolled in an international
school since i was young. i believe
that it has better my sensitivity
towards diverse multi-cultural
needs and want. and it's given
me a viewpoint towards different
cultural groups that's rare to find
among my peers that might have
lived locally all their lives.

[Mr.Lum]

i fit in well with most people. i get along with Polynesians, blacks, latinos, asians, whites, Arabs and Jews. i fit in well in Fiji and CA and i mix well with the people in my area.

[tapestrybabe]

when i'm with my family...
all my interest in korean stuff just goes out the window...
i dont really think too much about it...

altho the group of koreans i've started associating with...
i find myself discussing certain things...
like korean entertainment and such...
stuff... my family wouldnt be able to relate too...

so i feel i just act differently...
show signs of different interests...
depending what group i'm associating with...

[AngryABCGirl]

After having a few months to reflect back, I think I do switch my attitudes and way I interact with people according to differnet people. For example Ameircans tend to be really touchy feely, as in giving hugs all the time and jumping jump and down all excited.

When I"m with Asian people, it just feels weird to be interacting like that. In fact I noticed I show my feelings and interact totally different around my Asian friends even if they'er Americanized because it's just the way I'm use to doing it. Instead of giving a bunch of hugs and compliments there are more little things we do for each other or just being together and cooking for each other.

I dunno, how different I interact with people just really struck me.

[weever]

I think that no matter how many years youre around whites or blacks etc..... if youre genetically asian, once you get with a asian group...... you feel like you belong...........

like the saying goes 'birds of a feather........'

[enigma740]

I think that no matter how many years youre around whites or blacks etc..... if youre genetically asian, once you get with a asian group...... you feel like you belong...........

like the saying goes 'birds of a feather........'

It's in the blood, man!

Wait seriously, there's no asian gene.

[robotic]

when we moved to canada in 2005, i thought it would be hard to fit in but it became surprisingly easy. we were enrolled in a multicultural school for 14 years, had grown up in the UAE (a middle-eastern equivalent to canada's multidiversity) and visited pakistan every year since i was born.
in the UAE, it would be mostly english, casual 'western' clothing and having to interact with all kinds of ethnicities and people of various cultural backgrounds but in pakistan, it would be a completely reversed situation - speaking urdu, wearing shalwar kameez, having to follow a similar line of thought.

the area we began to live in canada has a steadily growing immigrant population. i'll take the example of south asians. most are new, like us, but unlike us, they grew up in their home countries and before moving here have interacted very little with other south asians, east asians, europeans, etc. if we had just grown up in the UAE, and not visited pakistan as much as we did, i would only be able to relate to pakistani's who had grown up in the environment we had. but my brother and i blended right in - with south asians that had grown up in south asia and south asians that had grown up around people of different ethnicities than themselves. it's sort like the best of both worlds.

[SunWuKong]

leave it to the newbies to dig up an old thread. i hope i didn't say anything too embarassing.

[weever]

Lol, what can i say? :D........ dont hate me cause im young

[CBC guy]

Well I do act more "Chinese" around Chinese people (talking about China, Hong Kong, etc. I also explain things about North America and the west in Chinese.) and act more "Canadian" with my Canadian friends. (ie, talk about hockey a lot and explain about China and Asia in English.) I don't have an accent in English or Cantonese, although I have a weird mixture of Beijing and Cantonese accents when I speak Mandarin.

But I'm still most comfortable with Canadian/American-born Chinese or other Asian. (good thing there's quite a few of them here in Vancouver)

[robotic]

haha oh cool ;_; i typed a long post for this and it never got posted. oops.

[bkim1974]

do you think you're a cultural chameleon? how well do you think you can fit in to different cultures?

personally, i think i can fit in pretty well with HKers as well as white people. i can speak accentless (although some friends have told me i do have an accent) English, and i spent a number of years growing up in the States where everybody around me were white, so i'm pretty familiar with how white people are on a personal level. but of course, there'll always be limits to how much i can fit in with white people because i'm not genetically white. i can fit in with HKers because i speak fluent Cantonese and i spent my childhood there as well as worked there for a couple of years as an adult, so i'm also familiar with how HKers are on a personal level.

i can say that before i went back to work in HK, i tended to "switch culture" depending on if i'm around HKers or if i'm around white people. but after working in HK and coming to the States again, i find it more difficult to "switch culture" when i'm around white people. or maybe it's also because i'm older now and more set in my ways. but even though i'm still pretty familiar with how the average white people are, i find that i can relate to them less now.

are you a cultural chameleon?


I was born in Korea, raised in South America, and been living in the US for 20 years. I think I feel pretty comfortable hanging with Koreans, white Americans, Mexicans, Argentinians, and Cubans. I am engaged to a Korean girl (for which my mother is grateful since I only dated chinese), work in a white company, and chill with the janitors once in a while. 1st generation Mexicans are cool. They are very sincere and hardworking. The Argentinians have a little chip on their shoulder. They consider themselves Europeans, not South Americans. The Mexians and Cubans dislike Argentinians..

[ahsingjai]

I blend all cultures together. I don't switch around. I'll be Chinese-American with white, black, hispanics, asians. WHOEVER.