Introduction: Dis/Claiming “Chineseness”

Abstract

This project explores the question of cultural identity—of discovering, or more accurately, rediscovering, who we are as cultural beings. To recognize the need for rediscovering how our cultural heritage can or cannot represent who we are can mean several things: it can indicate an awareness of our cultural heritage and personal background; it can suggest a desire to challenge the establishments and the norms; it can also point to the beginning of an effort to reconstruct our cultural identity in accordance with our own experiences with our own inherited cultures as well as those adopted.