Passing
I appreciate the links, by the way, and should have mentioned this earlier. Hadn't looked at them until the "that's racist!" 2001 archive at angry asian man reminded me.
Yes, I find this slightly disturbing, too. . .
It is in Japanese society, one where the myth of society as mono-racial and mono-ethnic is deeply embedded, that zainichi [ethnic Korean, more or less] youths live their lives. An enormous amount of invisible pressure is at work to assert that being "the same as others" is both vital and a matter of course. Even a slight deviation from the norm could render one a potential target of ostracism, bullying, and abuse.In this context, the vast majority of zainichi youths regulate their "selves" in accordance with the Japanese majority, and act in a way that is "the same as others." They adopt Japanese pseudonyms (pass names) instead of Korean ethnic names. They "conceal" their ethnic origins in front of their Japanese peers and neighbors. Such are the examples of a disguise which allow Koreans to "pass" as Japanese. In most cases, "passing" performances go beyond disguise: many zainichi youths incorporate in these performances a sense of negative self-esteem, self -dislike. Some of them wish from the bottom of their hearts that they were Japanese. Such an attitude can be called the "assimilationist orientation."
Someone's probably done a definitive study on passing (racial/ethnic, gender, and orientation, probably others I Iack the imagination to come up with). Any suggestions on that?
We have conducted in-depth interviews with approximately 150 zainichi youths regarding their life histories since 1988. Each interview takes from 3 to 4 hours, and focuses on their ethnic identity, as it is subjectively understood by the respondent him/herself.Overall, the following are our two major findings. Firstly, the vast majority of zainichi youths we interviewed had an experience of being exposed to some forms of discrimination and prejudice, either direct or indirect, either overt or covert, against themselves as Koreans by the majority Japanese, and have had or have identity crises. Therefore, we have to be critical of some common statements made by Japanese researchers, which overlook the complexity of the problem by saying that the zainichi youths are relatively smoothly accommodating themselves to Japanese society. This is in fact true when compared with the first generations who had been struggling with feelings of bitterness toward Japan and of nostalgia for their Korean homeland; and the second generations who had been desperately attempting to establish their economic bases and fighting against discrimination and harsh poverty. However, the accommodation to Japanese society of the zainichi youths is far from being free of psychological conflicts.
Secondly, we have observed a great diversity of zainichi identities. It is thus inappropriate for us to attribute to the zainichi, a great[er] homogeneity as a minority group than they have in reality. A traditional division of the zainichi identity into a type which strongly maintains its Korean ethnicity and another which loses its Korean ethnicity as a result of assimilation, is in fact too crude a dichotomy to reflect the present situation surrounding zainichi youths. A crucial problem hence arises: Why [do the] ways by which zainichi youths resolve their identity crises vary so much in reality?
Minor editing for clarity, sorry.
Don't suppose any of this sounds familiar. . .?
No, don't suppose it would. Those Black Studies courses would have been a complete waste of time, if you'd bothered taking any.
Comments
See...how do you do that? That's like an ENTIRE WEEKEND's worth of reading for me. But thanks for the homework assignment. I'll get right on it.
Posted by: drublood | October 3, 2002 12:10 AM
Hanne's prob'ly got a better/more uptodate bibliography than I do, but re: gender passing, there's always Leslie Feinberg's work. She's way Way WAY too into binaries for my taste, but high-profile nonetheless. In contrast to Feinberg, I liked how the zainichi article recognized a range of degrees of passing. [&, help me out here, guys] I know there's stuff epublished about passing on the internet, too.
Posted by: Neogrammarian | October 3, 2002 10:47 AM
Neo, thanks. The article reminded me of how some groups (African slaves, f'r instance) disguised traditional religious beliefs beneath a shroud (of Turin) of Christianity, too, which is why I asked if there was a Grand Unified Theory of this stuff.
Dru, see, you have a life. This is not an issue for me.
Posted by: Aaron | October 3, 2002 12:18 PM
Shiela-na-Gigs, St. Brigid, Halloween, May Day, Christmas trees, Yule logs...
Yum, disguised belief. (Yeah, I'm still on my whole Celtic research kick. I'll probably be here for a while).
Posted by: VASpider | October 3, 2002 12:24 PM
'cept Xmas gets the nod from all the mainstream branches of Christianity these days, and nobody takes the folks condemning All's Hallowed Eve as Satanic seriously.
Mixing saints and old-school figures is a game the whole family can enjoy. Except us Methodists who don't even know any saints. Maybe better (ex-)Methodists than me do, though.
Right, I'm back to the voodoo alter Shinto shrine, then.
Posted by: Aaron | October 3, 2002 1:15 PM
Is it better that they take all the old pagan traditions, incorporate them, and deny their origins by reinterpreting them into new things, or that they ignore them totally?
I don't know, really. Some days it really offends me that my parents think it's all right to say, "Well, we know that the Christmas tree was a Druidic custom, and that all of these things had serious pagan origins, but they're CHRISTIAN now!"
Some days I just laugh and shake my head.
Posted by: VASpider | October 3, 2002 1:40 PM
Yummies. Just heard a spiffy talk/abstract of a forthcoming diss from OSU's Rhet/Comp dept. Nutshell for thread-purposes: ethnographic study of 1.5 & 2nd generation Vietnamese students- between acculturation/assimiliation & resistance lies "identification"- in which groups can maintain group-discourses, but employ the discourses of other cultures when interested/necessary- it can therefore be used either as a tool of positive or resistant communication. Like cultural code-switching w/an adgenda. Anyway- will stop now- but it was COOL.
Posted by: Neogrammarian | October 3, 2002 4:53 PM
I wonder if the Christmas tree assimilation was due to Christians imitating the example of the Romans. The Romans conquered countries, marched straight to the temples, and announced "This is now a Roman god."
Posted by: Emperor Norton | October 3, 2002 9:45 PM
Imitating the example of? That would imply that the Roman empire wasn't Christian itself after the fourth century.
Posted by: VASpider | October 3, 2002 10:38 PM
Yah, but the whole idea that conquest leads to the cooptation of religious systems is pretty much SOP. Still ongoing, too. Look at our coments little further down about the appropriation of Ganesha (and follow that link to Dru and from there to the fabulous article she linked by a south Asian Sociology student about her experiences with the cooptation of bindi and other manifestations of 'ethno-chic.') Eerie how things play out the same way.
I also think it's interesting how, at least in my family, witchiness coeexists with Catholicism so *comfortably.* I come from a long line of chicks who talked with the dead and foresaw. And went to Mass. And the funny bit is, there really wasn't any sort of theological conundrum there -- nowhere in the gospels does it say that dreams filled with portents or conversations with your dead relatives are offensive. It's as if animism was designed to be the at-home companion of any larger philosophic/religious structure. And my very small knowledge of the way that, for example, Buddhism and Shinto function together, or the mention above of african traditional religion being veiled with Christinity, or the veneration of a multitude of saints within the Catholic monotheistic (trinitarian?) doctrine, seems to fit the same pattern.
Posted by: garrity | October 4, 2002 6:54 AM
Halloween?
Posted by: Michelle | October 4, 2002 9:23 AM
Um ok Aaron please fix the HTMl so that link will work or just use this one
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news1002/halloween.html
Posted by: Michelle | October 4, 2002 9:24 AM
I'm quitting the Fantastic Four! And this time, I mean it!
Should probably explain that joke at some point. . . nah.
Think numbers 4 and 10 are most approrpriate 'round here. Thanks, I've never looked around Landover for some reason.
Posted by: Aaron | October 4, 2002 9:47 AM
You've never looked around Landover? I really think you should. And I am obviously in way over my head cause I don't know what you are talking about with the 4 and the 10.
Posted by: Michelle | October 4, 2002 9:52 AM