Culture in the Blender

Someone posted a very illustrative story about cultural marginalization for third culture kids on TCKID.
In primary school, I was in a public school with a foreign population of 75%.
On the first day I transferred there, a teacher went:” Stand up. Okay… If you’re from Singapore/ Singaporean, sit down.”
I sat down as I had been in […]

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China has been in the news a lot lately, and for some reason I’m missing 北京 (Běijīng) something fierce. I’m meeting a friend for drinks tonight, and I desperately want to go to 三里屯 (Sānlǐtúnr). I want to walk out into the 北京 (Běijīng) night into my safe, familiar third culture world. I […]

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A few days back, I found out in my cultural psychology class that it is true that those expats who believe in essentialism (with respect to either culture or race) have more problems integrating. A study was done at Bei Da of foreigners in Beijing (by sending out researchers to talk to foreigners at Sanlitun, […]

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From time to time, I get little hints from whatever country I’m living in that the perspectives from other countries I occasionally mention or present are irrelevant or easily incorporated into the way of thinking prevalent in the country we’re in. (If you know physics, kind of like they dismiss arguments about needing to consider […]

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While watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica that had originally aired on Australian television, I recognized the song they used in the trailer for the next episode. I couldn’t remember who sang it, but I remembered the name of the song - Spaceman. A little YouTubing later, I remembered it was by Babylon Zoo and […]

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My psychology of culture textbook tells me if you consider a culture to include all individual variations within the culture, cultural differences disappear. For example, the differences between Japanese and American culture disappear. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy as a TCK to take a part of a culture that you like and use that […]

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Having spoken to people so much about my future and having had to stay a night at the Sixth Avenue Inn recently, even though I am back “home” I still feel displaced. I like staying at five-star hotels because it makes me feel a lot like I came home. It reminds me of the Lidu. […]

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I contributed to the TCK page on Wikipedia a while ago, and after posting my previous post I skimmed through it (Alright, I admit it, I’m procrastrinating) and noticed the following header: “Non-United States TCKs”. It was followed by the phrase “Most international TCKs are expected..”
Uh, what? Excuse me? Are even American TCKs so stuck […]

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It was recently suggested to me that a large part of my annoyance with a recent power struggle stems not only from the situation per se but also from the fact that the other persons involved are at a very beginning level of understanding cross-cultural life, despite extensive experience. I’ve realized that’s absolutely right.
I’m sick […]

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I strongly recommend What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives won the Heart of America to anyone who is as confused as I am over how the political situation can be what it is. Today’s dose of reading was very explanatory again, and I’m starting to realize that a lot of things have happened domestically […]

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