Post #2

            So far with the reading of the textbook by Holliday, I like the stories, or examples, that the authors share and how each one is then broken down to show what point is trying to be made. Reading the stories helps me better understand the concepts that the authors are trying to make. The story, and the explanation, at the beginning of the assigned reading were interesting to me. Zhang said that his behavior in class was because of the Confucianism in China, but the other Chinese student told the American that it wasn’t practiced much anymore. The explanation of the story states that Zhang blaming his behavior on Confucianism could just be a reaction to him trying to deal with the different classroom rules that he was experiencing. The way that Zhang talks about this part of Chinese culture shows how it is part of his cultural identity, but the other Chinese student demonstrates how Confucianism is not a part of his cultural identity. A point that was made at the end of the explanation of the story that I thought was important was the idea that in order to take people from different backgrounds seriously, communicators need to take everything they do and say seriously.

            When people communicate, they are exchanging information about their cultural identity, whether intentionally or unintentionally. An example to demonstrate someone unintentionally exchanging information about their cultural identity is the story about the group of girls on the bus. The girls used words that only their group, or “community,” would understand, kind of like a secret language or code. The girls’ use of the “secret language” demonstrates how it is part of their cultural identity. I use a “secret language” with my friends, probably like most people do. I think that it is fun to do and makes me and my friends laugh every time we use our own abbreviations or made up words, and because no one knows what or who we’re talking about. 

Later in the reading is a story about a man who assumed his neighbors we Amish just because of how they looked, dressed, and because they don’t have a television. He then later found out that they do watch television. This example demonstrates how the essentialist view of culture is based on stereotypes (prescription) and the non-essentialist view is based on observation (description). The behavior of the American student, Janet, from the earlier story shows how someone can demonstrate both views of culture.

The advertisements in section B.2 were very surprising to me, especially the “Angel and Devil” advertisement. I understand how the photographer and the company were trying to create an image with an ambiguous meaning but I still can’t believe that this was appropriate. Why would the African American child want to be in an ad like that? Today, there are so many advertisements and commercials that show several different races, like the picture with the three children sticking out their tongues. Advertisers do this so that they can depict an image that appeals to all parts of the world, but I think they make it way to obvious. All of the different skin colors and races that are depicted in commercials, ads, and billboards are all very over exaggerated. When the different races are shown, the people appear to be one hundred percent one race. They don’t show people who are mixes of more than one race.

In my opinion the chapter by Pavlenko was very difficult to read and understand. The understanding that I took from it was that the author is proposing that in order to understand identities, we need to look at the past to see how these identities were socially discussed. I’m not sure I grasped the entire concept that the author was trying to communicate to his readers.