This week, at school, one of the Chinese movie star’s son was enrolled. She came to have a pre-visit before the first day of his son’s enrollment. Expats did not know who she was, and just bet she was one of the new moms to walk around the school. However, Chinese working and teaching staff, they all recognized her, and went up to her to talk to her. You could tell the excitement that they would have. While people walking by, especially expats, you can tell from their facial expression and eyes that they were actually saying: You Chinese just block the corridor, yelling and making nonsense. Some expats even asked about what happened and why Chinese were also getting together, talking in such an excitement. I feel the disrespect and misunderstanding among two different cultures when I was observing it. In Chinese culture, people believe that it is important to show your happiness by smiling and talking to people with excitement, and socialization is significant in our lives too. We are close to all of our family members, as well as to our friends, and colleagues. However, expats are more willing to keep the distance with others, and talk and smile in a quiet and gentle way to show the politeness and manners. I do believe this micoraggression happens due to the misunderstanding of how people express their happiness in different cultures.
This is the microaggression that happened in our school. Chinese staff, as local staff, are not paid or respected well enough in our school environment. Sometimes, expats just do not know that why Chinese people always stick together and talk in an excitement.
From the observation, I feel that discrimination, prejudice, and stereotype on people will hurt people’s feelings, especially will make people of subculture feel they are inferior. I believe I would be more careful about the word choice when I am talking to a person who is different from me, and I would like to get to know more different cultures and traditions. At the same time, I feel like if people do not communicate about their confusion or what upsets them and really get to know each other, the misunderstanding will just continue, and microaggression will not be able to eliminated in our community.
Sissi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing an aspect of your culture. It is through learning and understanding that we break down barriers that separate us so that we can learn from each other. As Dr. Sue stated in the video this week, many interactions "happen outside a person's level of awareness" (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). People often speak unintentionally about what they do not know or understand.
Thank you for sharing this story with us. Perhaps it will help us to be more aware!