How my Race, Ethnicity, Heritage and Gender Impact my Life
Although some people claim that they know themselves better than others do I believe it takes a whole life to reveal one’s personality. Modern world is full of diversity and multicultural factors but if we narrow an idea to expressing ourselves through the origin, race and ethnicity we could understand who we are .
According to the Diversity Wheel which was created by Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener, I can identify myself as a twenty-one year old male, Asian and Taiwanese, non-disabled, and heterosexual. Those are features of the inner circle of the Diversity Wheel. From a perspective of the outer ring I am in a relationship with my girlfriend, not in the military, not a religious person, I leave in Seattle and have no kids. I also received my high school diploma, have been studying in Shoreline Community College to earned A.A. and pre E.E. degrees and I am currently unemployed. As you can see my personality is highly diversified and interacting with other individuals is not always easy. In the modern world we are involved in different types of relationships, such as genetic, friendly, business, etc. and it is of a high importance to present and introduce oneself through variety aspects that are hidden inside of our human nature.
People I communicate with in my everyday life are a part of it and have great influence on me, however my ancestor’s origin and my historical background have also been a significant part of me since I was born. Regardless the fact whether I like it or not, those personal characteristics were originally born with me, and I didn’t have a chance to choose them. The facts that I look and speak Chinese and my grandfather is Chinese as well have led to different kinds of stereotypes. However regardless the fact that my ethnicity is considered to be Chinese, my nationality is Taiwanese.
According to Wikipedia, “Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan (including the Pescadores) was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century”. During that time my grandfather lived in Taiwan too. While governing Taiwan, Japanese treated our people very unfair. Being an international student in the America gives me a chance to study with students from all over the world therefore there is high possibility to meet people from China or Japan. I met a lot of Taiwanese students that are not afraid to talk about our history and share our culture which made us closer. Without my ancestor’s origin this friendship could have never happen. The traits I was born with have always been the essential parts of my life.
However not only my ancestor’s origin but a cultural heritage is very significant as well. People who were born in Taiwan but weren’t from there originally are called Benshengrens. Because my grandfather has migrated to Taiwan from Fujian, China, I am a Benshengren. A significance of it is described in Wikipedia: “After Chinese Civil War, Sun Yat-sen's nation building theory, the KMT was to rebuild China in three phases so as to progress towards a modern democratic society: a phase of military rule through which the KMT would take over power and reunite China by force”. The national spirit and honor to the own country compared to the times when the previous Taiwanese generations and our parents lived grew up significantly. That’s why records often show that Asian parents tend to pay more attention to their kids education. My parents have never been an exception. While earning an education in America, I study Mathematics and Sciences and those disciplines have been the easiest for me as well as for many others international students who have the similar ethnical background. We were pushed very hard toward being successful back home and it makes some people believe that most Asians are better in these subjects.
I studied in Taiwan for almost 18 years. My studies were conducted in Mandarin Chinese, the language which is used by most of the Taiwan population. According to Wikipedia, “Over 90% of Taiwanese people consider Mandarin Chinese to be their native language”. However after my parents have sent me for college to America in August 2010 I had to study everything in English which is my second language. I have to admit that learning how to speak in my classes wasn’t helpful. Therefore a lot of international students have noticed that the best way to learn English is to become friends with native speakers. Therefore most of the international students like to make up American names like John, Lindaetc. in order to fit in. I’m not an exception. I also have an American name which is Gabby. Some people even go to church to learn English better and fit into American society more. I am not religious person but all of my relatives are Buddhist, and it is considered disrespectful if I join any other religion. The fact is reasonable because according to Wikipedia, “35.1% of the population in Taiwan follow Buddhism that means they have almost 8,086,000 members”. It explains why my parents are against me joining any other religion since Buddhism has been our religion for decades. In addition, since I’m the only child in my family, I try not to make decisions that might upset my parents and family members. I grew up in a middle class family, both of my parents have jobs. Their ethnic identities are Taiwanese, but my father’s racial identity is Chinese since my grandfather migrated from China. It has influence my language skills a lot since my father grew up with my grandfather who was originally from China and never spoke Taiwanese. Therefore we don’t speak Taiwanese at home even though my mom knows it very well. As a result, I was never taught how to speak Taiwanese. According to Wikipedia, “After 1945 (the WWII ended), there’re terms like inner and outer people to discriminate people who can or can’t speak Taiwanese”. According to the following I would be considered an outer person as I do not know Taiwanese.
Last but not least, Taiwan is a country that shares the same involving historical background with China. As we all know, in ancient Chinese history, women barely had human rights, and they were not allowed to study or talk while a men was talking. Although women rights have been adjusted, even our modern society has conflicts which have been caused by treating two genders differently . Therefore government passed the Gender Equality Act. According to Wikipedia, “ It has originated from local feminism movement in 1980s, began to be drawn in 2000, and was announced in 2004”. It gives women fair rights and equal social status. I am a representative of the male gender and treat woman with big respect . For instance, I went to the Hou-Kou High School which is the best high school in my city. It has around six hundred students however there were only 9 girls and 33 boys in my class. As a result males were dominating females. Since there were three times as many boys as girls, anytime we voted for making a decision, boys usually won. I felt like I had to fight unfair male privileges and I often wondered what pure girls were thinking about boys in my class since they often treated them unfair. I truly hope that the government of Taiwan will come up with a policy to solve the genders inequity issue .
