The Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia—a metro area that counts 40% of its 2.2 million citizens as being of Chinese ancestry—will be celebrating Lunar new year in true multiethnic fashion. The culturally diverse city will hold celebrations in Chinatown, but will also feature performances by North American aboriginal groups, South Asians, and those of Scottish heritage.
Did you pause when you got to the “Scottish” part?
Apparently, Scotch-Chinese intermarrying has been going on for years in Vancouver, resulting in multiethnic children who want to honor both cultures. Traditional Scottish bagpiping will accompany Chinese dragon dances and local restaurants are creating Scottish and Chinese fusion cuisine. I’m sure if anyone can make haggis—sheep organs boiled inside a stomach—palatable, it is the Chinese.
Lunar new year purists might find this suspect, but I think Vancouver is being progressive. If a densely populated North American city can acknowledge its multiculturalism through this type of inclusion, then perhaps there’s hope for the U.S.
Henry Yu, a professor of history at the University of British Columbia, says that Vancouver has "one of the highest intermarriage rates in North America ... glued on to a long history of conflict." He also notes that while they are "not unique in dealing with racism. But what's unique is how much farther we've gone."
Definitely farther than the U.S., I’d say. Maybe we should be looking north for racial harmony tips?
Posted by sylvie at February 6, 2008 1:55 PM
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hells yes, homeslice! my GREAT grandmother was a scottish/chinese hapa, in hong kong, though. there were lots of scots in the fragrant harbor playing taipan. maybe that's what softened the chinese up to kilt-wearers.
by the way, apparently it's annoying to refer to a person as "scotch." they're "scots" (adj.) or "scottish."
Yet another person that associates interracial marriage with a decrease in racism.
Oh yeah. That's right Joe.
When there is one race in the whole world, there will be no racism. Isn't that the solution?
I don't know why we have all these rah rah rallies when a white person marries an non-white person. Hey yo... rah rah... a white person married a white person. People get married and divorced everyday. Rah rah! That's progress!
It used to be illegal for non-whites and whites to get married. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws
I'd say it's progress. And obviously, it's still a sore subject, so how far we've come is still debatable.