For my final blog post (of the quarter), I chose to look closer at the phenomenon in an LA Times Article I found online about the election of a Vietnamese mayor in the city of Westminster. While this may not seem particularly intriguing or out of the ordinary to you, it is extremely crucial because it points to a fundamental change in the functioning of social difference within the urban landscape of the city. Westminster, which is a neighboring city to my hometown of Huntington Beach, is a great example of the hybridization of particular cultures and ethnicities as it brings Vietnamese and other Indo-Asian cultures into conjunction with the American functions already present in the area. This intermixing influence creates a new set of social rules and practices that change the function of the city, and thus affects the lives of its residents.
According to City-Data.com, 47.3% of the residents of the city are of Asian ethnicity, as compared to only 12.3% of the entire state's residents. Additionally, Westminster has one of the highest concentrations of Vietnamese-Americans in the entire United States (Wikipedia). There is a reason that the area is affectionately nicknamed "Little Saigon," especially considering that the area serves as a cultural reference point for the many immigrants who find themselves far from home and in need of cultural stability. Because these people cannot fully reestablish their old culture, nor can they forget it in favor of "American Culture," they begin to blend their culture with the dominant one to create a hybrid of the two. Thus, "Little Saigon" isn't Vietnam nor America, but a hybrid creation of the two that blends cultural characteristics from both into one. Thus, although the urban function of the city (meaning its streets, houses, buildings, cars, etc) models itself after a typical US city, the city is ethnically and culturally of Asian influence.
Aside from my addiction to Asian food and boba, this hybridization of cultures into one is why I love to visit Westminster. I appreciate the presence of other cultures in the multicultural makeup of the US, and especially enjoy when a culture is able to thrive and add dynamic diversity to the areas it touches. Thus, being able to go into Westminster and partake of traditional ethnic food, look at beautiful ethnic clothing,etc., is an intellectual treat. Additionally, because this is a hybridization of cultures, and not a clash of cultures, I do not feel intimidated or uncomfortable with interacting with the people of the area, nor with participating in the cultural practices present there. In the modern, globalized, culturally hybridized world,being a White person in a mostly Asian area is acceptable (and perhaps encouraged) because it represents the ability to mix cultures while recognizing the importance of their differences.
What makes this cultural hybridization so interesting is that Westminster now has a Vietnamese mayor, Tri Ta. Rather than having a representative who perhaps did not really represent the (near) majority of interests of the residents, the city finally has a person who culturally, politically, and socially represents the residents. The article talks about the jubilation of the residents to be able to connect with their constituent, but also of the pressures to reinforce the "dominant culture". This double identity of Tri Ta as both public servant and cultural role model is an example of the power of such cultural hybridization. He is neither just an American government representative, nor a Vietnamese resident, but rather a new product of the combination of the both: a Vietnamese resident who has been influenced by American culture, and thus acts as a Vietnamese-American.
In a globalized, increasingly interconnected world, the strength of such influences from other countries is apparent. The drive from Huntington Beach to Westminster is marked by a "cultural dividing line," as the change from city of mostly White residents to city of mostly Asian residents is indicated by a sudden change in shops, languages on signs, and types of restaurants. Considering the incredible innovativeness in shipping and communication technologies, it makes sense how the Asian Americans could dis-embed themselves from their homeland and make a transition to a new world, all without losing much of their cultural heritage. Jan Pieterse mentions the common creation of cultural hybridization as a result of globalization in his work, "Globalization and Culture: The Three Paradigms". As we become more interconnected and the "world begins to shrink," the once isolated development of cultures turns into the interconnected establishment of cultural differences/similarities as people leave their traditional cultural identities behind in search of new ones. Internet, telephones, computers, etc., make it possible for these world travelers to remove themselves from the Gemeinschaft of their previous lives to live in a new, modern, Gesellschaft. While their lives in Vietnam, China, Japan, etc., were not pre-modern, they are metaphorically representative of an old way of life that they had to break out of in order to become members of the metaphorically "new, modern lifestyle".
Cultural Hybridization, I have found, is not just about mixing two cultures together, but can be about multiple cultures mixed together. The "Melting Pot" of America creates an opportunity for all kinds of cultures to blend into one another, as shown by an Asian grocer that has signs in both its indigenous language, English, AND Spanish.
My trip into Westminster made me realize the extent to which it is important to understand culture in the modern world. We can superficially look at a culture in terms of what food there is, or what music they listen to, but without recognizing the place of that culture in the modern, dis-embedded, individualized, and globalized world, the true meaning of that culture is never fully understood. Just looking at Westminster in terms of what proportion of its residents are Asian or how many boba locations it has does not tell us the story of the Asian Americans who want to maintain their indigenous cultures and ideologies while becoming a part of the American community. This understanding of culture in the modern world is important because it tells us not only the evolution of our cultural history, but the way in which our lives and lifestyles interact with each other to create the modern world. Thus, as we understand the differences within our cultures, we can understand the similarities, too, and work towards helping others understand and accept them.
