Dealing with Cultural Identities: A Study of Nepalese Families in Tokyo

In recent years, the Nepalese migrant population in Japan has increased exponentially. The number reached 88,951 in 2018, becoming the largest south Asian population in Japan. This number includes people in various visa categories: skilled labor, engineer, business, dependent, student and so on. The number of school children lies somewhere around 10,000. A child born and raised in a culture different to their parents’ culture goes through a complex cultural identity formation process. In this context, this paper explores children’s cultural identity development and promotion by migrant Nepalese families in Tokyo. In particular, it examines which cultural identities they are prioritizing and how they are developing host cultural identities while maintaining their native culture. The experiences of these migrant Nepalese parents were collected through in-depth interviews with 45 parents. The responses suggest that these parents are prioritizing the promotion of a Nepalese cultural identity for their child(ren). Parents focus on promoting and participating in Nepalese festivals, cooking Nepalese food at home, and meeting other Nepalese families in Japan. However, almost every parent expressed their desire for the development of a multicultural sense in their child(ren).

(Re)storying Japanese Canadian Histories: Artistic Engagements

This paper examines how Japanese Canadian (JC) artists challenge discursive limitations of constructing representations of JC pasts. Their interventions into JC history-making are significant given the rise of interest in and proliferation of JC historical accounts, partly as a result of the accelerated passing of the remaining survivors of JC incarceration within a broader context of unsettled and unsettling discourses around incarceration in JC families and communities. Contrary to narratives of JC history premised on the conventions of academic history writing, we explore how JC artists engage with the past through their creative practices. Focusing on JC artist Emma Nishimura’s exhibit, The weight of what cannot be remembered, we suggest that JC creative history-making practices have important implications for processes of ethno-racial and-cultural identity formation. In so doing, we decenter state-bound history-making processes that reproduce colonial frameworks of JC subjectivity, temporal linearity, and “objectivity.” Instead, we focus on the temporally circuitous way that Nishimura and other JC artists engage with the past through the idiom of personal intimacy in ways that facilitate a more expansive notion of JC identity and community. Though Nishimura’s work is indexical as opposed to representative of contemporary JC art-making, it is significant in tapping into a common structure of feeling among JC artists that emphasizes a notion of JC’ness rooted in the active struggle to establish a relationship with the past. In attending to Nishimura’s work, we highlight the productivity of art-making as a method of (re)storying to expand meaning-making endeavors within and across communities.

Cultural Identity Formation: A Personal Narrative

This paper provides personal experiences and perceptions of being a minoritized individual. This is the story of a professional social worker learning to adapt to social norms and expectations of self. He discusses the struggles he experienced as an adolescent and as a young adult attending college. Through this narrative, the role of faith and social work intersect, especially as a professional social worker. It is at this intersection that this social worker learns to live a holistic life without feeling discriminated against or ashamed of his identity. He begins to actualize a reality with imperfect beings who also struggle to maintain their identity as well. Thus, in this paper, the author provides a snapshot of his development as a minority in the United States.

Intercultural communication: concept, essence and theories of intercultural communication

The author conducts globalization impact conceptual analysis on the national culture and cultural identity formation and development in contemporary societies. The main focus is driven on such issues, as the globalization phenomenon, the extent to which national cultures are exerted influence by globalization, as well as threats and opportunities produced by globalization that reflect on cultures.

Mis Chinos, Tus Chinos: The Orientalism of Chilean K-pop fans

This article aims to analyze the dual Orientalism of the Chilean fans of K-pop. All Asians in Chile are often referred to as chinitos (Chinese). Chilean society, generally speaking, considers the fans of Asian popular culture as ‘weird’ and as ‘outsiders’. The rejection of an unfamiliar culture is related to the process of cultural identity formation in Chile: an oligarchy society. Taking this into account, this article, based on in-depth interviews conducted in Santiago in September–November 2018, explores the most influential phenomena on the formation of cultural identity in Chile, determining social legacies of socio-economic status in Chile, and the influence of Japanese and Korean popular culture on young adults in Chile. Then, it investigates the nuances of the term chinitos in Chilean youth. Finally, it maps out the multiple societal contradictions in Chilean youth due to conflicting co-existence of indigenous culture and rapid neo-liberalization.