MIA and Chinese Culture

For this blog post I went to the Minneapolis Institute of art with my dad's girlfriend Xiaorong. Xiaorong was born in the Sichuan province in China and later moved to the Hainan island where she lived for about 25 years before moving the the United States. I moved back home with my dad and Xiaorong last May 2012 and never really new Xiaorong that well because I was never around her. Since I have been living with her I have heard many stories about China and Chinese tradition compared to the United States from her and this is why I asked her to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to show me even more about her culture.

To the right is the MIA building, Xiaorong had never been there before so I will add that she was pretty excited to explore! Below is some blown glass that is hanging from the ceiling right when you walk in. Xiaorong thought was pretty cool so I decided to show everyone as well.


As we walked up the stairs to the exhibits we came up to this very large tapestry that is filled with Chinese symbols. I had no idea what this said, what it meant or what all of the objects sitting below it were for (not pictured). Xiaorong looked at it and new exactly what it was! This was shocking to me because it's hard to fully grasp that all of those little symbols are words just like the ones I am spelling out and typing write now. To my memory, Xiaorong said this was a type of birthday celebration tapestry for an Eighteenth Birthday. Since Xiaorong knew exactly what this said right away, I am guessing the message on the tapestry is part of Chinese culture; either that or Xiaorong is a very fast reader. I am not someone who knows how to read Chinese symbols so it was hard for me to understand how to interpret the message on the tapestry. Linking this experience to class material I was reminded of the Ice-Berg model and I am connecting Xiaorong's knowledge of the birthday tapestry to Intermediate-level culture. Intermediate-level culture is a symbol or non-verbal communication that stands for and represents something meaningful in a culture. In this case the tapestry had a non-verbal message, which is the symbol that creates meaning to Xiaorong and allows her to know the meaning of the tapestry. Although, Xiaorong was able to grasp the true meaning of the tapestry because she is from Chinese culture, I was able to decode that this tapestry was Chinese because globally people can be aware of where symbols come from even if they might not know the full meaning behind the symbol. Pictured below is the tapestry.

 I can also relate deep-level culture, or shared values and beliefs among a culture, when we walked into the Chinese home that is on display at the museum. Xiaorong was explaining how during a formal gathering the guests would sit facing the other guesting and the owner of the house and his wife would sit next perpendicular to them (these two chairs are pictured on each side of the tapestry in the middle of the room). She also said the tapestry most likely pictured the owner of the house. To me this seems extremely formal for guests to be seated like this in a gathering. I remember when she told me this I thought it was really awkward the way it was set up, but to her it seemed normal. I did not allow ethnocentrism to take ahold of me and accepted that there are different practices in different cultures and this doesn't make them strange or wrong. This just goes to show how two people brought up in diverse cultures have different ideas and beliefs from each other and there is nothing wrong with that.

We also came across tiny sculptures of animals in one glass display. I recognized these because in my opinion the Chinese zodiac is somewhat of a popular tradition. This can be interpreted as surface-level culture. Most of the time we learn about other cultures through popular culture. In the United States if you go to a Chinese restaurant its hard to miss the Chinese zodiac sheet of paper laid out on each table for you to indulge. Additionally, I believe learning your horoscope when it comes to Astrology and the Chinese Zodiac has been a popular thing for quite some time now and that's what has made it well known. Although, the Chinese Zodiac can be seen as surface-level culture, it can also be classified under deep-level culture since it is part of Chinese culture and there is a deeper meaning to the Chinese Zodiac than Americans perceive it to be.

Another artifact we looked at was a small model of a traditional Chinese home. Xiaorong explained the home to me in a way that I never would have guessed. The model contained three homes with a gated opening forming a square layout. To better describe the layout, two houses were facing each other and the other house was facing the gate. In the middle was a garden or courtyard. I thought maybe this was a neighborhood, but Xiaorong said this was a traditional Chinese home where a whole family occupies each house. She said that the parents might live in one house, the grandparents in another and the children in the third. This reminded me of collectivism, and how the "we" is more important that the "I." Family extends, and includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins living together. This is different from my American culture because the closest family I have outside of my immediate family are not in this state and some are not even in this country! I have family in Wisconsin, Canada, Texas and Italy. This is because my culture is more individualistic. This really made me wonder how much courage it took for Xiaorong to move here away from her family who are all still there.

Overall, Xiaorong is someone who really knows a lot about her Chinese culture. She even knows a lot about Chinese history which shows that China cares a lot about educating their people about Chinese history and keeping their culture and legacy going forever. In American I feel as if there is not that much emphasis put on knowing American History or history in general. This is something that sets these two cultures apart.

When I think about how much Xiaorong is aware of Chinese culture it makes me realize that I am not even sure if I know the extent of knowledge she knows about Chinese culture when it comes to me knowing about American culture or Italian culture. I am not sure why this is. I question if it has to do with the fact that Xiaorong has been living in the United States and has been able to compare her culture to American culture over the years and realized the differences. I say this because I believe seeing other cultures helps us realize and become more aware of the differences we have in our home culture. Since Xiaorong has been here for 20+ years she has had more time to notice the amount of differences and explain them to me. However, I do also believe she had a great upbringing and schooling that gave her such a great knowledge of her culture too!

 Last but not least this assignment helped me to realize how important it is for people to be culturally aware. I believe having intercultural knowledge is one of the most powerful forms of wisdom today especially, because today there is a global work economy where people from all over the world are communicating, not to mention there are so many people immigrating to knew countries and people would be happier if they could understand the people around them. I think confusion often times leads to anger and this is one of the main reasons why people find it hard to get along when they come from different cultures. I myself experienced this with Xiaorong when we first began living together. She does things differently than Americans do. For example she is very indirect with her communication, she doesn't look at you much when you talk, she eats very slow, she eats different food than me, she doesn't drink cold water, she speaks very loudly in Chinese on the phone when you're trying to watch television and she hangs strange symbols and decorations around the house that I am unfamiliar with. These are just a few of the different things Xiaorong does and at first I can admit I didn't like it. I couldn't understand why she did all of these things, but as I got to know her more I was able to understand that she was different because she came from another culture. This class has even helped me to realize more about Xiaorong and definitely put ethnocentrism into perspective. Overall, this class has helped me accept her more for who she is. There are still times I can get frustrated, for example, when she asks if everyone at the Grammy's is Lady GaGa or when we watched the Oscars she asked who everyone was and I am just trying to enjoy the show in peace. I just remind myself she didn't grow up in American culture, why should she know who all of these famous people are! Just because I know who they are, certainly doesn't make me any smarter or better than her. For this reason I think it is very important to immerse yourself in different cultures in order for people to get a long better and learn how to adapt to diversity. If someone can't afford to travel and see culture by exploring the world, this assignment has proved that it's possible to learn more about different culture by attending cultural events, museums and food markets.