5/16 Siad film & Shah

In this article, Shah talks about the social practices of second-generation Laotian girls and also analysis the factors that can influence or affect those young second-generation’s social identity, ethnic identity, gender and class. One important thing that Shah has mentioned in this article is knowledge of ethnic distinctiveness. Shah said, “ My respondents also conveyed a strong desire to maintain ethnic distinctiveness through the preservation of particular aspects of Laotian culture.” I agree with that because most of my Asian immigrant friends like their Asian identity. They acknowledge and being proud of their ethnic identity. For example, like the film we had watched before, Cambodian immigrants still participate in the monkey dance. Also, I still like to eat rice and soup instead of hamburger and pizza even though I live in the United States more than three year already. Noticed, half of the respondents were born and grown up in the United States. Before I read the rest of the paragraph, I was confused about why these “native” people think in that way. As she mentioned in the article, most of the teenagers think this make them become unique and different with others. Also, having two cultures and languages make teenagers feel good about it. I agree with that because each time when we been told to do self introduction to our classmates, people feel different and unique when I used Chinese to say hi to them or listen other speak French and Japanese.

            In Said’s video, he talks about the Orientalism and related problems. In this film, Said also mentioned some concerns about misunderstanding about Orientalism, religion and even culture. I think we should have a positive and correct attitude to face this problem and encourage more people to aware of Oriental issues such as dress some culture symbol clothes in festival, etc.