Preview

Chinese Identity Of The Universal Chineseness? By Colin Mackerras

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
738 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Chinese Identity Of The Universal Chineseness? By Colin Mackerras
What is Chineseness? What is Chinese identity? Does a universal “Chinesehood” exist? These are questions brought to the fore when I read the essay “What is China? Who is Chinese?” by Colin Mackerras. They are important because the answers may well shed light on the Chinese identity in general, not just confined to the border of the state called PRC, but stretching to other Chinese-dominated communities that have doubts and debates on Chinese identity of their people, e.g., overseas Chinese groups. This essay, due to the limit of words, will have a mere touch on the question of Chinese identity of the Chinese diaspora in the United States. For children of Chinese immigrants, the question of Chineseness is more desperate, for the ambiguity
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Guns Germs And Steel Chapter 16 Outline
    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Guns Germs And Steel Chapter 16 Outline

    Most of the world’s largest countries are extremely multicultural. China is a great exception. The vast majority of Chinese people speak Mandarin or a similar language, and most Chinese families have considered themselves Chinese for millennia. Diamond theorizes that China was once as linguistically and culturally diverse as Russia or Brazil, but that China began its process of unification far earlier.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The China Coin Chapter Questions
    • 774 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The China Coin Chapter Questions

    1. What is Leah’s attitude to her Chinese identity as she travels to China? How do we know? (page 10)…

    • 774 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Chinese In All Of Us Richard Rodriguez Summary
    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Chinese In All Of Us Richard Rodriguez Summary

    The point of this essay, “The Chinese in All of us” by Richard Rodriguez, was to show that America is one giant melting pot. That there is no such thing as an “American” culture. An American culture cannot exist as one central thing because there are so many cultures that mixed together to form what we have now. It’s a never ending cycle of growth as a country. The immigrants come to America and with them, they bring their ideas and customs. While they learn the customs we already have we, in turn, adopt some of theirs that we observe along the way.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Wayson Choy Research Paper
    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Wayson Choy Research Paper

    , 1999. [ 2] Paul Yee, Saltwater City. A n Illustrated H istory of the Chinese in Vancouver [M ] . Vancouver : Douglas and M cIntyre, 1988. [ 3] , . : [ M] . : , 1993. [ 4] Pierre Berton, T he Last Spike[ M] .Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971. [ 5] Wayson Choy. T he Jade Qeony [ M] . Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1995. [ 6] Edgar Wickberg. From China to Canada: A History o the Chinese Communities in Canada[ M] . Toronto: M cClelland and Stewart, 1982. f [ 7] Peter S. Li. The Chinese in Canada[M ] . Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1988. [ 8] Wayson Choy. Paper Shadows : A Chinatown Childhood [M ] . Toronto: Penguin, 1999. [ 9] Karen Romell. [ 11] . Op en Sky [ J] . Step Magazine1990( July / August) . : : [ J] . , 2004, ( 3) : 116- 123. [ 10] Edward W. Said. Cultur e and Imp erialism [ M ] . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. [ 12] Marty Chan. Wayson Choy[ EB/ OL] . http: / / www. 136. 159. 250. 102 / gauntlet / eg / features / stories / wordfest / choy . html. [ ] : [ A] . . [ C] .…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Struggle of Second Generation Acculturation and Assimilation
    • 2458 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The Struggle of Second Generation Acculturation and Assimilation

    The graphic novel American Born Chinese (2006), by Gene Luen Yang, is a very modern and influential piece of work that can be compared to the short indie film Two Lies (1990), directed and written by Pamela Tom, which had preceded the novel by 16 years. These two different forms of work, both utilizing their ability to teach the audience, are used as powerful venues for the topic of identity crisis among the Asian people in a majority European American world. In the film, we have Mei and her family who are all having some trouble adjusting to their lives in Southern California but more specifically we have Mei and her trouble to understand her mother 's cause and intent for having undergone double eye-lid surgery. In ABC, we have our protagonist, Jin, who is having trouble fitting into his new school in San Francisco since he is one of the very few Asian admitted to the school. Another time line in the novel is the story of the monkey king who does anything to get rid of the fact that he is a monkey in order to fit into society. The third is the story of Danny, a European American who has trouble and often becomes embarrassed with his hyperbolic Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee. This character is first introduced by saying "Harro Amellica!" while Jin 's father, carrying giant Chinese take out container says "I 'll put your luggage into your room, Chin-Kee" (48). All three of these time line show our characters having some sort of shame or embarrassment to the fact that their own image or background is different from those around them.…

    • 2458 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dbq Essay On Chinese Americans
    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dbq Essay On Chinese Americans

    Like past immigrants who came from Germany, Ireland and other places around the world. Chinese people in America faced many challenges when migrating. They felt like outcasts. Some experiences for the Chinese were in racist encounters and the feeling the way that Nazli Kibra felt when she came to America. She had always thought of herself as an American when she thought of herself as “the American kid on the block,” (Source F) until she went to school and she felt outcast and that “Whites think they own the world and the rest of us are just here for them.” (Source F) They felt as though they did not fit in in America. For Kibra, the Americans that she noticed at her school were people who were “VERY white, very wealthy. These kids owned sports cars and went to Rio for the weekend.”…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Detroit's Point Of View
    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Detroit's Point Of View

    Comparing/Contrasting The Replies Of Chinese And Mexican Immigrants From A White Boy from Detroit’s Point Of View…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Multiculturalism and Assimilation
    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Multiculturalism and Assimilation

    Richard Rodriguez’s “The Chinese in All of Us” is about multiculturalism and bilingual education in America, which impacts our individual identity. He claims that it is our surroundings that define who we are, culturally, and because of the fact that America is a melting pot of many cultures, it is difficult to define who we are. To support his argument, the author uses pathos in the form of his personal experiences. Fallacies are present in the article but it is committed by others and supports his claim.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    American Born Chinese Essay 1
    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages

    American Born Chinese Essay 1

    American Born Chinese was a book that I would have initially missed reading because it didn’t appeal to me then. However, it wasn’t until the three narratives intertwined at the end that I realized that this was a great read. Jin, Danny, and the Monkey King all have one thing in common; they try to become something they are not, and they lose their sense of identity until the realization of the truth that we cannot fight who we really are. Jin comes to America and desperately tries to fit in with his classmates and assimilate. The Monkey King tried to become something greater than himself, and become an equal with the other deities. Danny is what looks to be a normal high school student, but is plagued by his Chinese cousin’s visits every year to his school. Each story has different content but primarily focuses on the theme of identity, and how each of them find their own identity.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ethnic Diaspora Essay
    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ethnic Diaspora Essay

    Migrants often move in search of a better life. However, their pursuit of this better life often comes with challenges, such as grappling with feelings of displacement and conflict between their native and host culture. This is corroborated by Huntington’s seminal work Clash of Civilizations, which postulates that in the future, the ethnic Chinese Diaspora will have greater reason to identify with their motherland through the East Asian economic bloc, which is inherently antagonistic to the host nations, in this case Indonesia and…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Model Minority In America
    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Model Minority In America

    There are many ideas and assumptions surrounding how the “model minority”, or the Chinese in America came to be. Coined in 1966 by sociologist William Peterson, the term "model minority" was first articulated in an article entitled "Success Story: Japanese American Style" in the New York Times (Peterson, 1966). The immigration of the Chinese to America and how they became the model minority in an age of discrimination while surpassing African Americans is worth learning. I feel it’s important to review the immigration and legal history.…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Multicultural Paper
    • 2005 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Multicultural Paper

    Most successful immigrations comprise of acculturation. Acculturation is the process of incorporating norms and values of the host civilization into the immigrant’s. First generation Chinese-Americans find acculturation more difficult than later generations, which cause a greater interference between the family and increase the level of stress than would be faced initially. Many Chinese customs adhere to strict yet simple rules of the family. The father being the…

    • 2005 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Personal Ethnography
    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Personal Ethnography

    Hu, Wenzhong, and Cornelius Lee. Grove. Encountering the Chinese: a Guide for Americans. Yarmouth, Me.: Intercultural, 1999. Print.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Is nationality changing the sign of no patriotism on celebrities?
    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Is nationality changing the sign of no patriotism on celebrities?

    Key word: patriotism, the change of nationality, the celebrity (the “nationality” in this paper narrows on China Mainland citizenship)…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    In Your Own Words Describe The Consequences For The Children Of Mexican Immigrants Case Study
    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Your Own Words Describe The Consequences For The Children Of Mexican Immigrants Case Study

    Some of the consequences for the children of Chinese immigrants are that they will likely struggle to interpret their own feelings, which will also affect their ability to feel comfortable to talk or write about how they feel. Also, these students will have a hard time understanding or interpreting the feelings and emotions of characters while reading a story. Lastly, these students may avoid conversations with teacher and other adults at the school, affecting their ability to practice their communication…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics