Dim Sum: A look at ethnic identity and assimilation (First Draft)

Ruth Adive For Janice Johnson Soc. 64: American thnicity A!ril "#$ #%%#

In the movie Dim Sum, the interaction of the mother and daughters clearly show varying degrees of assimilation into mainstream American culture and different demonstrations of assertion of the familys ethnic identity. With no evidence to the contrary, we can assume that this family immigrated to the U.S. and have been in the country long enough to adapt some of their native hinese traditions and practices to the surrounding culture. !he mother however, seems to hold onto her roots and origin more tenaciously than either of her daughters. "ne may argue that this may be a function of age#it is hard to teach an old dog new tric$s#or merely a reluctance to %betray& her nationality. 'inger speculates that assimilation is a multidimensional process. While the mother seems to find a degree of difficulty in assimilating into the American culture, (eraldine and her sister, Amy, seem to have assimilated into the culture with much greater ease. In fact, although there is no e)plicit mention of it, it seems that Amy has already started to significantly blur the racial lines by intermarrying with a blac$ man. !he mothers comment at the party of Amys daughters hair being %unruly& as opposed to *ust curly due to the mi)ed blood with a presumably blac$ man is further testament to the mothers reluctance to accept any dilution of the familys pure hinese blood line. +ar$s race relations cycle offers a response to the ,uestion of what happens when people of divergent cultures come into contact and conflict. -e asserts that there are three stages of this cycle#contact, accommodation, and assimilation. We can further e)pand this cycle to include association, acculturation, and finally amalgamation. !hese terms can all be used as measures of assimilation. ertain cultural idioms such as speech

patterns or language, food, and celebrations all indicate various degrees of assimilation.

lues to the various degrees of absorption are demonstrated in Dim Sum. .or e)ample, we notice that the mother seems to prefer communicating with her family in hinese whether or not she receives responses in hinese or /nglish. "ne could argue that because the daughters respond to the mother in /nglish for the most part, they have assimilated faster than the mother. -owever, the mother obviously understands and spea$s /nglish and her refusal to spea$ it may point to a determined effort to hold onto her native ethnicity. In this case, the mother is accomodating the American culture without necessarily assimilating it. !he family does still try to maintain its ethnic identity but it is easy to see how certain elements are being lost. !he fact that while the mother is home, the family eats hinese food points to efforts to hold onto the culture. -owever, when (eraldine and the uncle try to coo$ hinese food and fail, we see evidence of atrophy. !raditions such as ta$ing off your shoes in the house also indicate the value that the family still places on their ways of doing things. It is easy to imagine that the cultural chasm present in the family will only widen with each generation. Amys daughter is evidence of the increasing absorption of American ethnic identity into this familys culture.