About culture
“Culture becomes
visible when we travel between cultures” (Ryan, 2010), as an exchange student
from Taiwan, I can absolutely feel the meaning of this sentence. Not only food,
values we hold and teaching methods in school are quite different. Just like
Hall’s iceberg analogy of culture (2010), culture includes behavior, beliefs,
values, and think patterns. When I started to choose a picture that represent
my culture, firstly, I used the concept that I learned from Hall’s iceberg
analogy of culture and the readings which I got from the lecturer. Secondly, I
asked myself” What will I introduce Taiwan to foreigner? What is the most special
things we have in our mind and society”, and the answer came out, Taiwan night
market. The reason is night market not only
shows the way Taiwanese act, for instance, the way we cook and eat, but also
shows our value of life, these are what we call culture.
About identity
Previously, I thought
identity is only what makes us special. It really interesting that after
reading, I realize that the root of the word” identity” is Latin idem, which means “same”. This means we
do share common identity, but the things I care more is about what makes us
unique. The answer I have got so far is we have different “soul”, this is the
part that deep inside our mind (Lawler, 2008). The differences are due to we
all have a different life. Because no one has only one identity, I spent a lot
of time to figure out which identity can represent my identity. At the end, I chose
two photo, it shows that I am a women, sister, teacher and Asian. I chose them,
because it show both common identities and unique identities I got. Moreover,
these identities build up who I am today, and remind me which responsibility I
should take.
Historical influence and
society
At the beginning
of the lecture, Professor Judy Mcgregor (2015) give us a brief answer of “why
is history important for understanding today?”. The answer is the history gave
us roots, it grounds our understanding. In my point of view, history not only shapes
the society and culture today, on the other hands, it also teach us some
lesson. I chose photo of History textbooks to represent “my view of historical
influences in today society”, because we learn our culture, values and country
though History textbooks, and the history events influences our thinking and
the way we act today. When Professor Mcgregor was talking about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the period of time
when Japan colonize Taiwan burst into my mind. This part of history did shows influences
today society, for example, building and langue. Lot of elders can speak
Japanese, but some of them hate Japanese due to the terrible history events
they had been though.
Human right
Human rights is for
everyone on the earth. It about many things, includes eating, liberty,
education, marriage and so on. We all knows it important, but still, there are
a lot of people lost their rights. For example, the homeless people on Queen
Street, and the refugee all around the world. I have hold a value that I think
all people are equally and as a world citizen, we should stand up for those who
lost their human rights, so this is way I join the ”TPPA-WALK AWAY” protest.
References
Lawler, S. (2008). Identity: Sociological perspectives.
Malden, Mass: Polity Press.
Ryan, M., Ingram, B., & Musiol, H. (2010). Cultural studies: A practical
introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hall, Edward T. (n.d.) Cultural Iceberg model.
www.constantforeigner.com
Professor
Judy Mcgregor’s lecture and slides (29/07/15)
