Post by Raine on Jul 15, 2014 13:28:39 GMT -5
Hello Everyone,
A little while ago my daughter asked me if she were a color what color would she be? Being a second generation overseas born Chinese raised within a rainbow nation I too at times experience the same sense of ambiguity - feeling a little displaced at times within an East West Culture and value system. The answer to my daughters identity confusion became something of a consuming interest for me. I started reading and researching as much as I could on this subject matter.
After some time putting my insights together, I found the following conclusions to be of most interest:
Mixed Ancestry is ethnically rather than regionally based. Therefore perhaps a more global perspective would provide a more accurate reflection of its true essence.
A community can only be advanced with the awareness of its shared commonalities and ideals. What then should the ideal of Euro-Asian identity be?
At the root of East (Far East) and West cultures lie only two sets of values rooted in Ancient Greece and China. By understanding these values one can perhaps more easily determine the natural ideals of Euro-Asian identity.
The Western world founded its culture and value systems on Ancient Greece under philosophers Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. The core ideal being individuality. reasoning, logic and linear thinking and the East under China - Confucianism, Buddha and Daoism. valued Interdependence, harmony, inner reflection and holism.
There seems to be wide consensus today that these two world views are in many ways complementary rather than contradictory in nature. This concept is well demonstrated in both Eastern Taoism and Western Complementarism. East and West are complementary opposites that need each other to be whole.
According to many research studies including that of Maria Root (1990), a leading researcher in the field of mixed race studies states :
People with mixed ancestry can find the greatest satisfaction when they value both sides of their ancestry and also integrate it into a unique expression of self.
Value both sides of your ancestry + your own unique expression.
My acronym :
E = Me + 2
Everybody = Me : Your own unique identity + valuing both sides of your ancestry.
Please lets acknowledge each other and share the ideals that make us one.
Raine Law Yuen
A little while ago my daughter asked me if she were a color what color would she be? Being a second generation overseas born Chinese raised within a rainbow nation I too at times experience the same sense of ambiguity - feeling a little displaced at times within an East West Culture and value system. The answer to my daughters identity confusion became something of a consuming interest for me. I started reading and researching as much as I could on this subject matter.
After some time putting my insights together, I found the following conclusions to be of most interest:
Mixed Ancestry is ethnically rather than regionally based. Therefore perhaps a more global perspective would provide a more accurate reflection of its true essence.
A community can only be advanced with the awareness of its shared commonalities and ideals. What then should the ideal of Euro-Asian identity be?
At the root of East (Far East) and West cultures lie only two sets of values rooted in Ancient Greece and China. By understanding these values one can perhaps more easily determine the natural ideals of Euro-Asian identity.
The Western world founded its culture and value systems on Ancient Greece under philosophers Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. The core ideal being individuality. reasoning, logic and linear thinking and the East under China - Confucianism, Buddha and Daoism. valued Interdependence, harmony, inner reflection and holism.
There seems to be wide consensus today that these two world views are in many ways complementary rather than contradictory in nature. This concept is well demonstrated in both Eastern Taoism and Western Complementarism. East and West are complementary opposites that need each other to be whole.
According to many research studies including that of Maria Root (1990), a leading researcher in the field of mixed race studies states :
People with mixed ancestry can find the greatest satisfaction when they value both sides of their ancestry and also integrate it into a unique expression of self.
Value both sides of your ancestry + your own unique expression.
My acronym :
E = Me + 2
Everybody = Me : Your own unique identity + valuing both sides of your ancestry.
Please lets acknowledge each other and share the ideals that make us one.
Raine Law Yuen