It’s important to foster connections between cultures and countries, Jiayang Fan, a staff writer for the New Yorker told a crowd in the Global and International Studies auditorium.
Fan spoke Wednesday night as one of the weekly speakers of China Remixed, a series spanning 10-weeks full of exhibits, performances, and lectures.
“It is futile to pit one culture against the other or somehow tether my loyalty to one or the other,” Fan said.
Fan was born in Chongqing, China, and moved to the United States when she was 8 years old.
Now, she sees the importance of not allowing cultures and identities to struggle against one another; instead, unifying them is crucial.
As a child, she said she struggled for years to come to terms with her conflicting Chinese and American identities, especially when it came to language.
“English seemed to me a crude instrument that I had gained to survive, but Chinese would be how I would express myself,” she said.
A Chinese student in the audience connected with what Fan said and explained to Fan that her diary, previously written all in Chinese, was starting to incorporate some English words and phrases.
“That’s just kind of the natural experience of being immersed in another culture and language,” she said.
Fan related the idea of conflicting cultures and the way that others perceive one another to the global scale. She said the current political climate, including Trump attacking China on subjects like trade, has brought a lot of the differences to the forefront and alienated a lot of people, including Americans.
“In many ways, it has altered our perception of the country we live in and manifested the divisions we were happy to overlook,” she said.
She said it’s important to see the world as a place beyond physical boundaries and to understand there is a lot people don’t know about other cultures, particularly China.
Professor Emily Metzgar voiced a similar opinion and said as China becomes more influential in areas like their culture and military, it’s important for American citizens to learn about the country and its culture.
“Ideally, then we find common ground,” she said.
Metzgar teaches a course in the Media School about media and culture in China, X-478 Field Experience in Media, where students learn about Chinese culture and visit the country over spring break. She said making connections, especially with the growing number of Chinese students on campus, is important on both a local and national scale.
Noah Sandweiss, a junior studying history, attended the event for both extra credit and the opportunity to learn more about Asian culture. With an interest in East Asian history, Sandweiss said it was important for events like these to help dispel common misconceptions regarding China and Asia.
“It’s great because a lot of academia becomes a bit of an echo chamber,” he said. “But with events like these reaching out to the whole of the community can help educate a broader group of people.”
