Cultural Autobiography Project

Race/Ethnicity

Growing up as an Asian American in Hawai'i was very safe for me. I grew up with peers that looked like me and that had the same culture as me. Moving to the mainland, I felt the impact of being a minority. The shift from being part of the majority to the minority was very uncomfortable for me.

As a student of color on the mainland, it was hard to feel comfortable. The differences in my surface culture were evident, however it was at the shallow and deep level where I struggled to connect with others of a different race. Being honest, concepts of time, non-verbal communication, decision making, concepts of self, my preference for cooperation, and more made me feel like a minority at times. I realized that I had different life experiences than many of my peers which can be a advantage or disadvantage. Texts about Asian Americans are not highlighted as well. I felt more quiet and subserviant than my White peers in class. In Asian culture, working hard and being successful is very important. Careers such as being a doctor or a lawyer or other careers that were very financially successful was very important. A lot of my high school classmates went into careers that were in medicine, computer science, engineering, and others. However, being a teacher comes with implications of not being successful. This was passion as a young child, and so I worked hard in school and had high expectations for myself and am proud to have chosen this career regardless of the negative views of sucess of this career.

Race/Ethnicity

As a person of color as teacher on the mainland, it was challenging yet it was a fulfilling opportunity. I learned that I can provide my students with a different cultural perspective and be a safety net for students of color. I was also able to provide perspectives of people of color through texts and life experiences. I celebrated Chinese New Years with my students and share about a special holiday that I celebrate in my culture. I was also given a book that I read to them titled Eyes That Kiss In The Corners. However, I also learned that being a person of color in a community that is not diverse can come with many assumptions and stereotypes about my race. I felt that often I was not taken seriously because I was different. A student that I had was told a negative assumption of Chinese people from their parent. I was shocked that people had thought in that way, but I used my perspective (narrative and counterstory) to share how this microaggression is innapprioriate and untrue.

Geography

I grew up on the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i. Growing up there, the world seemed much larger than I could comprehend. I had traveled to many places on the mainland and to a few countries, but I had not really realized how small Hawai'i was in comparison. There are certain parts of living in Hawai'i that has imbeded into my culture. Living in Hawai'i I found that the culture aligned with collectivsm. Hawai'i is so small that everyone knows someone or has a relation to someone. Working together with your family and friends are a big part of living in Hawai'i. There was a sense of competitiveness at my highschool, as it was a high acheiving private school, however, outside my highschool, I found that there was not much competition rather cooperation. It was interesting to see that this was different to the mainland which according to Hammond the US was ranked highest as an individualistic culture.

As a student, growing up in Hawai'i and then attending college on the mainland, I grew to become very curious. However, I did realize how sheltered I was in the sense of not knowing what the mainland had to offer and the exposure to different cultures. I felt very homesick and not grounded during my time on the mainland. However, I was exposed to many different people of different cultures. I was able to grasp a deep understand of cultural context of people from different parts of the United States. I learned to share the culture of growing up in Hawai'i and shared my strories of growing up with others. I loved sharing where I came from and learning about others.

Geography

As a teacher, I am able to share my experiences and learn more about different mainland cultures. I learned that there were different customs and terms for things on the mainland. I was also able to learn while teaching my students. I was able to share certain things from Hawai'i with my students such as dancing hula. In contrast, I learned very quickly that do not have as similary perspectives as my students when talking about certain issues and situations. I learned that I do not have the same concepts as them. When first moving to the mainland, I learned about road trips and snow.. When talking about these ideas, I had a different conceptual understanding about these ideas similarly to how they would if I talked about the beach.

Gender

I identify as a cisgender female and will continue to identify with this identiy for my life. I grew up with a sister, many female cousins, and a few male cousins. During family gatherings, the females would always be in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and the males would be outside grilling, chatting, or drinking. My female cousins and I would always be playing house, makeup, dancing, or singing. My male cousins would often not be around or be in their room watching TV or playing video games. There were certain stereotypes that I had learned while growing up such as girls were gentle, docile, and obedient and that they cook and clean. These ideas stayed with me as I grew up.

As a female student, I had been put into a box of what I could acheive and what I could not. When I was in elementary school, there were girls lines and boys lines in the classroom. I remember there were distinctive moments when we had different roles based off of our gender. Girls always wore dresses for chapel and boys had to wear pants. I have found that there was an underestimation and a certain level of expectations. Girls academically could only acheive so much and that they were limited to the amount of careers that they could go into.

Gender

As a female, choosing a career was very easy for me. Females are put into a category when choosing a career. Many females take on roles where caretaking or giving was the primary purpose of their career. As we had learned during class, many females went into education versus males. When growing up, I had many female teachers and hardly any male teachers. Knowing that I had always wanted to be a teacher and seeing the female presence in education made me want to be in education. I have loved being a female presence for the girls in my school, but I do struggle with connecting to some of the boys on a deeper level. As a female in education, I continue on the stereotype of the gender of people in education.