Defining Ethnicity

The balancing act of shifting cultural identities

by Aki Soga

An article posted recently on an Internet list serve about balancing life and work raised some interesting issues about ethnic identity in this country.

The piece published on Jan. 12 in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, author Sam Crane opens with this gambit: "I am a white, middle-class American college professor, happily married with two children, two dogs, a cat and a Ford Taurus station wagon. .... How, then, can I say I am Chinese?"

Crane, chairman of the Asian Studies Department at Williams College, bases his assertion on his absorption of Chinese "sensibilities" through his study of Chinese religion, culture and philosophy.

Crane's article raises interesting questions about how we define ethnicity in our society.

Crane was not unaware of the somewhat unusual nature of his claim. He wrote:

"It seems preposterous now that someone could change cultural identity, but the early conception of Chinese was more inclusive and accepting. So if I use a Chinese worldview to navigate my most difficult personal trials, and if I invoke the same ideas to make sense of other parts of my world, then by the oldest definition, I am Chinese."

It's a very academic and intellectual argument, one that makes sense along the line Crane travels. And in a country that promotes itself as a melting pot of cultures, Crane's claim to becoming "Chinese" should be as valid as any new immigrant's claim to being American.

Crane does say that many of the values adopted by young, urban Chinese today reflect the consumerism and materialism that are that are the hallmarks of American culture than traditional Chinese values.

But such claims of shifting cultural identity can strike a sour note with those who don't have that freedom, who, because of their appearance, regularly experience being pigeonholed into a racial or ethnic identity.

While Crane might feel Chinese, and identify himself as Chinese, it is an optional identification. It is an identity he can slip in and out of at his choosing. If he is as he describes himself -- a white, middle-class professional -- it's safe to say that no one would identify him as "Chinese" unless he did so himself first.

While Crane can "become Chinese," in this country, ethnic Chinese -- and other Asian Americans, for that matter -- can never "not be Chinese." That is, our physical appearance is such a defining element of how this society views us and assigns identities that, in most day-to-day encounters, it trumps all other characteristics with the possible exception of gender.

Some might see Crane as a dilettante who cherry picks "exotic" cultures without having to live the full consequences of his choice. Crane doesn't have to share in the stereotypes of good and bad -- and the guilt-by-association that comes with being a racial or ethnic minority in this country.

In an increasingly diverse society, we need people like Crane who can see themselves outside of their skins and in another cultural context.

It's much more difficult to get others to see beyond your skin.

Aki Soga is chairman of AAJA's Media Watch committee, which seeks to promote fair and accurate reporting of Asian Americans. He is business editor at the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press. He has worked as a correspondent for Knight Ridder Financial News in Tokyo, and as a reporter and copy editor at The Asahi Evening News, an English-language daily in Japan.