推荐一个链接 关于中国人定义的讨论

dreamerinsh

偶然发现这个网站：http://blog.hiddenharmonies.org，是海外华人介绍中国的英文网站，觉得挺有意思的，推荐给大家，下面的链接是讨论中国人的定义，讨论也挺有深度的。
http://blog.hiddenharmonies.org/ ... mean-to-be-chinese/

bulaohu

ya it's a nice discussion there, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. thanks!

About the 3 definitions of what makes a person "Chinese", I think point 2 in that post is the weakest - yes most Chinese people have strong ethnic characters that are easily recognizable, but the so called "pure blood" from 黄帝和炎帝 are long gone. China, through its history, has been probably the biggest racial mixing pot ever, and our culture has been proven once and once again to have the capacity to absorb, merge, transform, evolve, and attract people by its beauty, not by force.

And I hail his courage of not identifying himself primarily as American. Matter of fact I guess it's a lot harder for a ABC (pun) to overcome the identity crisis than us adult-aged migrants.

dreamerinsh

链接的帖子实际只是‘BUXI'从别的BBS转贴来的，他自己的看法如下：


July 4th, 2008 at 06:31 | #28
Reply | Quote

Glad to see this article attracted interest. Welcome especially to new visitors. A few people with unique backgrounds…

- Phoenox is Tibetan (are you in the PRC with Chinese citizenship?),
- and ZT the non-Asian Chinese from Guizhou (I’m sure we’d all like to hear more about your experiences).

That’s not to suggest the ABCs are boring… everyone brings a different take on things.

There was a bit of confusion at the top. Just to clarify, this article is not written by me. Some of its opinions are identical to mine, and some are not. I’m still trying to make up my mind on some of these issues. I tend to agree with those who argue being Chinese should be a subjective, personal choice.

On the one hand, I know many Chinese holding Chinese passports who’re hoping to emigrate and discard their citizenship as soon as possible. I’ve also seen many Chinese trying to isolate their children out of the “Chinese community”, making sure they’re raised in a purely English environment… it’s hard for me to call these people Chinese, regardless of their ethnic roots (or even legal status).

On the other hand, I know many Chinese overseas who work very hard to make sure their children understand they are Chinese and will always be Chinese. I know 4th, 5th, even greater generation Chinese throughout southeast Asia and North America who still have Chinese names, who still work on learning Chinese language and culture. It’s hard for me to call these people anything but Chinese, regardless of their citizenship.

For those of us who are raised in a Chinese household… it’s hard to entirely discard the cultural DNA that has left its imprint on all of us. Most of us are raised from our first breath to miss home, to think of home, to think of family, to think of our heritage. If you have a Chinese grandparent that you’re close to (and most Chinese have just such a grandparent), then it’s really unlikely you haven’t been imprinted in some way with this cultural tradition. And even if you don’t have someone in your household passing on this to you… No matter whether we’re reading Tang dynasty poetry or watching a New Yorker with Taiwanese parents rapping in English (see: Wang Lihong), we’re almost always reminded of that linkage to home and to our heritage.

With that in mind, it’s hard for me to be completely emotion-free when I see someone walk away and discard that cultural tradition. It’s hard for me to be completely emotion-free when I meet someone who has no idea that cultural tradition even exists. Even though some of my closest friends fall into these categories, I have to admit that in my heart of hearts, I do judge them.

On the issue of Taiwan… because of the politics and history of what the island has gone through, this has been perverted. In reality, the same cultural DNA towards respecting our heritage is just as strong, if not stronger, in Taiwan. I don’t know if the story was ever proven true or false, but it’s been said that Chen Shui-bian carries with him a slip of paper reminding him of his family’s ancestral village in Fujian province.

For some in Taiwan, they’ve tried to redefine their “links” in order to tie themselves to the island of Taiwan itself… and they’ve redirected the passion that Chinese around the world have felt for “China” into passion for “Taiwan”. I’m not going to say that’s absurd… in fact, I think it’s encouraging that they care, it tells me the cultural DNA is still going strong. Taiwanese politicians now have to publically pledge they were raised “drinking Taiwan’s water and breathing Taiwan’s air”, because that actually matters amongst the Taiwanese electorate. I don’t know how many American or European politicians find it necessary to do the same… I know not many Californians care that Arnold Schwarzeneger was raised on Austrian water and Austrian air.

In the long term, I’m optimistic. Chinese civilization is too long, Chinese culture is too deep to be dampened by a political dispute. I don’t think “desinification” will actually take root in Taiwan. When China flourishes (as I believe that she will), the children and grandchildren of today’s Taiwanese independence activists may very well rediscover that link. And of course, there are MANY Taiwanese families today who are doing everything they can to make sure “desinification” never happens in Taiwan.

Just to wrap up this comment for now… I want to propose a question that I don’t really know the answer to. What can we learn from the experience of the Chinese diaspora in southeast Asia? We’ve had several posters on this blog (maybe not on this thread) who are ethnic Chinese of the nth generation, and proudly proclaim themselves as such. Will the Chinese diaspora in the West hold on with the same pride and determination…? The Jewish community has done precisely that in the West for thousands of years; will the Chinese do the same?

Happybanana

It's interesting that he argued himself to be a Chinese after being raised in the United States. I would suggest that he should call himself "Banana", not because I love my oursteps ID too much . I would assume descendants of Chinese like him are more likely to be Yellow outside but White inside, therefor, he is not traditional Chinese, but a Banana.