A personal reflection of my understanding of culture

When people often think of cultural differences they often revert to ethnic differences, as that seems the easiest way to understand the differences between people; especially in regards to social and political interaction, ideologies and beliefs.

When people look at me… to put it simply, they see a white girl.

I am. I won’t deny the colour of my skin.

Like my friends say, I’m white like sliced bread.

However I am much more than that:

My mother is Filipino.

My father is Australian.

I’ve been confused for Italian, Middle Eastern, Greek.

I was born the Philippines, raised here in Australia. I don’t know anything of Filipino culture to be honest.

Occasionally my mother makes traditional Filipino food, but that’s a rare instance.

And I don’t see myself as anything more than a simpleton from Sydney.

Surprise!

Having been raised in Sydney, and my mother neatly and nicely assimilating in to Australian culture kind of means all I know is the Australian culture and identity. I’ve only been to the Philippines twice when I was younger and really don’t remember much. They’re a predominantly Catholic country, something I see reflected in my mother… who I can fight with tooth and nail when we don’t agree on going to Church.

People are really surprised when I tell them that I am half ‘Asian’ – they often look at me questioningly as if scrutinizing my resemblance to the homogenous term. I am expected to know the language and eat copious amounts of rice. And when I when I make a bad decision on the road… well, even I blame it on genetics.

I guess that’s the stereotype that I have to weave around everyday when this topic comes up in conversation. I really don’t display any “Asian” traits. My best friend and I jokingly refer to myself as faux Asian. I’m a fake. A fraud.

My sister on the other hand is what kids today refer to as an Egg. White on the outside. Yellow on the inside. She’s interested in some of the K-Pop scene and likes a lot of Anime. But her skin colour tricks people into thinking she’s the loaf next to me.

Cultural identities I find are often assigned based on trivial and simple ideas of identity. They are homogenising terms and imply that that one individual assumes all the culturally relevant traits. My sister and I are just two examples of how you can’t look at people and judge or assume they are a representation of a cultural identity. As the course has taught me, it’s much more complex than that.