Week 7: Identity

        Identity plays a huge role in everyone. It is how you are determined of who you are and where you come from. In Valverde's article, she talks about the artist Huynh Chau and how Chau struggled to learn of her own identity through the Vietnamese American community.  As many controversies came upon Chau and her artworks, she did not give up for what her art pieces were about and her beliefs. Many Vietnamese in America today still struggle to find their identity in being an American and also Vietnamese. I understand that it is a difficult task for these Vietnamese Americans because it is also difficult for my own community, the Hmong. The Hmong people have a similar story to the Vietnamese where many have immigrated to America after the Vietnam war of 1975 and are living in a diaspora also. Many Hmong people now in America still tries to preserve and keep their Hmong identities alive in many ways. Just like how the Vietnamese anti-communists' group do by protesting to keep their collective memories of their identity alive,  one of the ways the Hmong help kept their identity alive is by holding huge new year celebrations each year.

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID3095/images/hmong.jpg

During the new year, the Hmong wear beautiful traditional clothing and perform traditional singing and games. A question to ask yourself is what does it truly mean to you to help preserve your own cultural identity and how can you do so? As Chau did, she kept her identity alive through her artworks.

   Identity, culture, and gender is a huge part of our identities and cultures. Purnima Mankekar analyzed the film, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The lover wins the bride) and looked closely at the Indian overseas issues and "non resident Indians" from the west. How Indian culture portrays gender roles and a culture identity through marriage.

                                                Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge

      In Theorizing Diaspora, Arjun Appadurai "argues against the notion that relationships in the new global cultural economy can be reduced to a simple center-periphery model" (25).
Appadurai describes the five different types of scapes and how they are important to us. For example, technoscapes, where technology is everywhere and that is how everything is seen worldwide through media, internet, etc. Appadurai says these are important because it is how "communities are forged transnationally..." (25).
   It makes sense to me and I do agree with Appadurai that these five scapes exists in our daily lives. It is how everyone communicate, travel, and learn today. It is important that we understand these concepts and know how it functions because it will be able to help us understand the process of globalization more.

Study Questions:
1) What are the "three spheres of influence" and their purposes? Explain how each one is able to effect Vietnamese overseas and also Vietnamese in America.

2) Explain what the term diaspora is according to Stefan Helmreich. How does the term diaspora come about in the film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge according to Makekar? What is important about the film?

3) What are the "five different types of imagined world landscapes?" Explain what is Appadurai's opinion on them and what is his argument on them.

4) What is "cultural insiderism?" Explain the idea and purpose of the term. Give an example.

5) According to Stuart Hall and other theorists of the Birmingham school, what does being apart of a subculture mean? Give examples from the reading and explain.

By: Jou Xiong