One of my very close friends, a Pakistani American who has been studying at a university in Kuala Lumpur for the last five weeks, tried to describe to me the odd tingle of solidarity she felt every time she saw a Caucasian person riding a subway or walking through the shopping plazas in Malaysia's capital city.
"I want to run up to them and ask them where they're from, and find out if they're from the States, too," she said. "Like, you're an American, you're one of us!" The irony, as she further explained, is that the other person would not feel the same towards her, as he or she would probably assume that my friend was either a Malay local or some other non-American foreigner.
I can completely relate, as I am currently studying abroad in the National University of Singapore for the next four months. Being abroad in another country for an extended period of time brings about strange and unexpected perspectives in the intersection of ethnicity and nationality.
Back in the U.S. my Asian side to my Asian-Americanness defines my minority status. In Singapore, however, the opposite is true. It is my American identity, not my Asian identity, that separates me from everyone else.
My physical appearance as a woman of Japanese descent allows me to blend in relatively well in this country-state predominantly populated by Chinese people. My very American upbringing, however, sticks out like a sore thumb in my way of speech, my style of clothes and the way I walk. I feel oddly pretentious every time I don my oversized Angeleno sunglasses during sunny days because in Singapore, people prefer to carry parasols.
My friend Toubi, a girl from Tokyo who was born in China but moved to Japan when she was 10, told me once that if she were to see me sitting silently from a distance, she would assume that I was just another a Japanese girl. "But then there is something about the way you walk and carry yourself that is very American," she said.
I wonder what that is, exactly?
The permutations of ethnic identity and nationality you find in an international university are nearly endless. In the last several weeks, I have met a Chinese girl who grew up speaking French and English in Tahiti, a Vietnamese boy born in Germany and of course, my friend who was born in China but moved to Japan. Not only have I met minorities born of other countries, I have also met for the first time people born in Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, to name just a few, who have all come to Singapore for their first time to receive their university education.
Clearly, the world is a much bigger place than I thought. As an AA college student who has grown up in Southern Calif. her entire life, I realize how easy it is to ignore the fact that the minority experience is not only limited to the U.S., but is a universal social phenomena occurring in all parts of the world.
In the end, it's oddly comforting to know that other people in other countries juggle two separate cultures, languages and modes of thought as we do. Toubi and I have become rather close in the last several weeks. We have several parallels in our respective lives. In Japan, she eats Chinese food at home and speaks Chinese with her parents while in America, I eat Japanese food at home and speak Japanese with my parents. We somehow manage to communicate to each other with my mediocre command of Japanese and her so-so command of English.
She said that she would introduce me to her Japanese exchange friends after I told her my desire to hone my Japanese language skills. I find it amusing that it is in Singapore, out of all places, where a Chinese girl can teach an American girl to be more Japanese.
Published September 1, 2006
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