What Can I Contribute to a Multicultural World?
As a Chinese-American growing up in America, I have had the opportunity
to be influenced by both Chinese and American cultures. While
my English may be the stronger of the two languages, Chinese will
always be my native tongue. I may dress in American clothes, but
my closet will always bear a traditional Chinese long dress. The
Asian side is a part of me that I cannot escape and would not
wish to in any case because it makes me unique. There are not
many who get the opportunities to be exposed to both American
and Chinese cultures. There are many situations in which there
is prejudice towards the Chinese culture because people are uneducated.
Americans frequently stereotype Asians as being quiet, smart,
petite, all looking the same, eating rice every meal, etc…
As a Chinese-American who is aware of the different characteristics
of the two cultures, I have a duty to the world. I must spread
my knowledge of the Chinese culture and give the world a view
unobstructed by prejudices.
First I must look at my position in life realistically. I am only
one person out of billions of people in the world. If I am to
successfully influence the world with my ideas, I must start off
influencing small groups of people and then gradually grow to
influence bigger groups; otherwise, my wants to spread knowledge
and to reveal the truth will be ignored and crushed as easily
as an empty coke can. Convincing a powerful group of people like
the US Senate that my ideas are viable is unlikely, but influencing
people who are around me in my community is within my reach. I
would use the community as a way to gather Chinese-Americans and
other people who share the same background as I do and form an
organization backed by Kiwanis, an international charity organization,
for financial needs. With one of Kiwanis’s goals being “to
provide a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render
altruistic service, and to build better communities,” they
would back my organization’s goal to improve the world’s
people by making them and their communities aware of the Chinese
culture.
I would lead my organization in sharing the experiences and knowledge
of their Chinese culture with members of our community as well
as with other communities. This can be taught in different ways
such as holding food festivals in which the communities would
be taught how to prepare different Chinese dishes and holding
runway shows in which different garments of the Chinese culture
are modeled and explained. Each program that we hold would incorporate
teaching the Chinese traditions and giving people the chance to
be a part of the culture by allowing them to wear the traditional
Chinese clothing and cooking and eating Chinese food. Traditions
of why Chinese people wear weird looking dresses and eat strange
foods will be explained to make people aware of why Chinese people
do the things that they do.
The ones teaching the communities will consist of people of all
ages to appeal to the different variety of ages that make up the
community. For example, a teenager may be influenced more if taught
by another fellow teenager who may be seen as a peer rather than
an adult who may be seen as an authority figure. These programs
will appeal to children, in that they are taught in fun and interesting
ways to increase their curiosity in the Chinese culture, and to
adults, in that they can jump right in and experience the culture
up close with the people who know it best. It will encourage people
to learn more about the Chinese culture instead of believing the
stereotypes that Chinese people are placed in because of uneducated
people who make up ridiculous reasons for the strange things we
do.
My organization will be different from others in that it is made
up of people who care about how people are uninformed of cultures
other than their own and my organization will use their power
to change it. In addition to teaching the community about their
culture, I will plan trips, with the help of our supporting charity
organization Kiwanis, for my organization to take the communities
to explore China, the very place they are learning about. There
is no better way to see how a culture works than to be submerged
in it. Word of how great my organization is will eventually lead
it to become an international program in which there would be
multiple cultures teaching their traditions to their own communities.
My original organization of Chinese-Americans would set the example
for other countries and cultures to do the same by its effectiveness
of drawing communities and their people together to learn about
different cultures without the prejudices of people uneducated
in the very cultures they depreciate. My organization will change
the ways people view cultures that are not their own. There will
be a newfound appreciation for different cultures and traditions.
With my international organizations, the world can be more united
and more understanding of each other. Education has been a primary
goal for many countries for it is the basis for a strong nation.
Who is to say that education only includes learning mathematics
and sciences? As I currently attend a high school for the gifted
that puts emphasis on the science, mathematics, and humanities,
I have learned that the core subjects are not the only things
in the world, but there are things going on in the world that
we need to be aware of. A constant feature that the world is made
up of is culture. In a world as diverse in culture as earth, it
is the world’s responsibility to teach themselves about
different cultures in order to understand each other better. My
contribution to the world would be to help people to be aware
of the other cultures that surround them everyday to better themselves
as people and as a nation.
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