I can't seem to find it but somewhere on jhameia.com ('Intersectionality Dreaming') is a post that really struck a chord with me, about the difference in the attitudes of Chinese-American and mainland Chinese people about other groups borrowing from Chinese culture. It observes that the Chinese-Americans tend to be more defensive, whereas the mainland Chinese are more live and let live, or even enthusiastic. This is a generalization of course, and I'm probably glossing over key points, but your point about taking regionalisms seriously reminded me of it, and, like, for all the culturefail Supernatural likes to wallow in, there is still a part of me waiting to see an Indonesian tuyul or Filipino tikbalang as MOTW. Colonial mentality? At least a bit, I won't deny it. A few years ago, there was a WW2 movie with Joseph Fiennes and James Franco called 'The Great Raid' about a mission to rescue American soldiers from a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines. Manila ATE IT UP. They LOVED IT partly because their country and countrymen got to share screentime with big-name honkies. The Philippines' own WW2 stories are rich and tragic, but it was sidelined here and ppl were just happy that Hollywood was acknowledging us :-/. I mean, I went to watch that movie in theaters feeling very hopeful but ready for disappointment, and then unsurprising disappointment was unsurprising.
But back to taking regionalism seriously! Ya, I wonder if part of it is that Chinese culture in China (or any X culture in X, really) is ubiquitous and dominant and there's enough to go around, so to speak, so people get complacent about it. But here the culture is kind of shoved into a corner and jostling for space with itself and others. People hanging on tightest to what feels the most threatened. People relating to feeling wronged and bullied and different and belittled. It's almost like there's not enough identity to go around, so you hold on damn tight to yours, goddammit.
I am going through the mundane-bingo prompt masterlist and I am IN LOVE. How much do I love "food disasters: kicked off the bus for contraband durian"? If I don't get that for a bingo square, I might have to write it anyway.
no subject
But back to taking regionalism seriously! Ya, I wonder if part of it is that Chinese culture in China (or any X culture in X, really) is ubiquitous and dominant and there's enough to go around, so to speak, so people get complacent about it. But here the culture is kind of shoved into a corner and jostling for space with itself and others. People hanging on tightest to what feels the most threatened. People relating to feeling wronged and bullied and different and belittled. It's almost like there's not enough identity to go around, so you hold on damn tight to yours, goddammit.
I am going through the mundane-bingo prompt masterlist and I am IN LOVE. How much do I love "food disasters: kicked off the bus for contraband durian"? If I don't get that for a bingo square, I might have to write it anyway.