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Zizheng Huang

Prof. Firestone

Academic writing II

8 Oct 2021

Culture is the key of identity

As the communication between different countries becomes more and more

frequent, more and more immigrants occur. But these immigrants, especially their

children, are often not accepted by local communities because they have different

appearances. It is foreseeable that a black child is not accepted by a group of white

children because he is totally different from these white children in appearance.

However, there are some ways to be more accepted by the local community.

When a foreigner is not accepted by the local community, it is mainly because

local people find the foreigner has different appearance and different actions with

them. The main character Emma of the article From Hapa to Hafu is an example for

this. As a Japanese-American mixed-blood, Emma has an American appearance. She

went to Japan as an exchange student because her mother was Japanese and she was

curious about  Japanese culture. At first she considers herself as of mixed ancestry,

but in Japan she feels like she is more American than she is at home. Non-Japanese

last name, lack of fluency in Japanese, and ignorance about Japanese culture makes

Emma feel like herself sticking out. When she walks on the street, all the people think

she is a foreigner without explaining. This sense is like you are treated as an outsider

by relatives who don’t know you very well just because you do not have a physical
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characteristic of the family(for example, red hair). To clarify her identity easily,

Emma started to use “Hafu”, which is a word that is a little bit insulting because it

implies someone is not whole. Although Emma wants people to know about her

background and accept her, the Japanese community thinks she is of mixed blood, a

foreigner, not part Japanese（Yamashiro,2017）. In another article Alienation, Souad

is an Arab, and she was put into a French classroom to study when she was a child.

However, the French students refuse to go in touch with Souad because they think

Souad is an Arab, and is dirty. Souad felt very bad, and she could say nothing because

she doesn't even know anything about these French student’s culture. From these two

examples, we can find a foreigner’s appearance will influence local communities’

judgement a lot. They will instinctively reject people who have different appearances

with them.

However, when foreigners learn the local culture, there is a high likelihood that

they will be accepted by the local community. A boy called Norman is an example for

this. Norman is a China-Pakistan mix. He has dark skin, thick eyebrows, big eyes,

curly hair, and all physical characteristics of Pakistanis. Norman has been to China

since he was a middle school student. He is fluent in Chinese, and familiar with

Chinese culture. fNorman gets on well with his classmates in China. All of his

classmates think of him as one member of the Chinese community. They study in

groups, play basketball together after school, and live together in the dormitory.

Norman has completely integrate into the Chinese community. From Norman’s
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experience, we can find that if the foreigner learns well about local culture, they will

probably be accepted by local culture.

Being familiar with local culture before immigrating to another country is a

solution to be accepted by local people.  Emma and Souad have different appearances

with local people, and they also are not familiar with local culture. As a result, they

are not accepted by local communities because no one would like to go in touch with

them. However, Norman has a different appearance with local people, but he is

familiar with local culture, and can use local language fluently. He can communicate

with local people, and after some time together, the local community accepted him.

Norman’s experience shows that being familiar with local culture is the solution for a

foreigner to be accepted by the local community. Let’s try this on Souad. If Souad

knows about French culture, and can speak French fluently, she might have a chance

to justify herself and try to go in touch with her French classmates. Her French

classmates might gradually find that although Souad is an Arab, she is not really dirty

as they thought. This will change their cognization about Arab people and they will

accept Souad. Thus it can be seen that being familiar with local culture really helps

when a foreigner wants to be accepted by local culture.

In conclusion, although some immigrants may have different appearance with

local people, they can try to learn about local culture. When they are familiar with

local culture, they will be able to have more communication with local people, and

they will have a higher chance to be accepted.

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Work cited

Yamashiro, Jane H. “Chapter 3 Mixed Japanese American Identities In Japan.”

Redefining Japaneseness: Japanese Americans in the Ancestral Homeland, Rutgers

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University Press, Canada Ontario, 2017 (pp. 83-87.)

Ed Husain(2007). Islamist in Carola Suárez-Orozco(2008). Stories of Identity:

Alienation.(pp.80-85.)