New Identities, New Media

In the last few days, we’ve read much about race, class, and ethnicity —and how, they, along with gender and sexuality, all seem to “constantly [cross] and [recross]” (Hall, p. 444) when it comes to the formation of “new identities.” For someone rather new to the school of cultural studies, it really was interesting to think about the fact that “how things are represented and the ‘machineries’ and regimes of representation in a culture do play a constitutive, and not merely a reflexive, after-the-event, role…” (Hall, p. 443).

What stood out particularly to me this past week was David Parker and Miri Song’s article on the effects of internet and new media on the lives of young British Chinese in “New Ethnicities and the Internet.” As an American-born Chinese (ABC), I was able to fully relate to much of the content in Parker and Song’s piece—especially in regards to the “two-fold” nature of identity that many young ABCs like myself are known to face. Like the British Chinese, there is a hope among us to belong to America, but there is also a desire to retain aspects of our Chinese identity. Similarly, there are also a plethora of contradictory feelings and opinions among this “embryonic second generation” – which continues to provide discourse and discussion for an ever-ongoing debate: What does it really mean to be ‘Chinese-American?'

Personally, my thoughts tend to stray more towards the comments of British Chinese Online forum user ‘Ook,’ who, in a March 2005 posting, wrote: “I don’t think there is a proper, correct or accurate definition of being British Chinese. For some it is a state of mind, for others it’s an identity. For me, it’s the unique blend of ideas, ideas, beliefs and mind sets of the Chinese and British backgrounds […] I suppose I’m more British than I am Chinese but the parts of me that are Chinese are near the core of my being where the foundations were laid by my mother” (Parker and Song, p. 595). Identity negotiation (ethnic formation), hence, truly does have a “multi-faceted” nature, as both Hall and the article seem to suggest.

On another note, Parker and Song also emphasize the “emergence of new institutions to represent complex identities and experiences” (p. 588), offering the idea that the current obsession with new media has changed ethnic identity formation, giving “wider access to the means of representation, and the supporting social morphology of swift response to social injustices” (p. 599).

Online activity, as Parker and Song suggest, can both express and transform identities—and the article provides much evidence on how online web connections among the British Chinese often lead to offline mobilization that spawned, in many cases, forms of direct action for social change/intervention (i.e. protests, petitions, rallies, etc.). This “banding together” of the ‘new’ Chinese identity immediately reminded me of a similar cultural controversy that occurred on Jimmy Kimmel Live late last year.

Like the April 2001 response of British Chinese to “the adverse representations of Chinese food as a potential source of foot and mouth disease” (Parker and Song, p. 597) or the collective protests of Min Quan (a civil rights action group) against the redevelopment of London’s Chinatown-- the Jimmy Kimmel incident sparked an uproar amongst the Chinese in America, tapping deep into a current of resentment against American media, as well as proving that there is, even today, still a great amount of demonization towards China (and various other ‘marginal’ groups) in American society. 

Just something to think about.

-Pamela C.