To what extent can an individual represent their nation, race, or gender? Everyday, I am faced with the complexities of this question as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant on Kinmen. Most people give the obvious answer, "It is impossible to completely and truly represent such a large population of diverse people." However, it is difficult not to reflect upon my own American identity when Kinmen locals ask burning questions regarding homes, salary, music, and hobbies. In retrospect, my conversations about the United States all stayed within the scope of my personal experience.
Most countries may have many more points of cultural convergence. In comparison to them the sporadic variance of the American identity is distinctive. When using the term "identity," I am referring to one's upbringing, background, and general dispositions. For instance, my love of jazz, American pop, Chinese pop, Bollywood films, and African dance were all fostered in one nation. Our nation is so diverse that, at times, it is difficult to explain my culture in relation to the rest of the American population. Can I even call it "American culture" or should I call it an "American sub-culture?" What if the sub-culture pulls from other sub-cultures? The exogenous nature of what controls a person's identity also fascinates me. Since childhood, I had little control over the culture that I was exposed to and yet that culture defined me.
I enjoy the exciting experience of sharing the unique compilation of my identity with the people of Kinmen. However, sharing my own culture inevitably makes me question my identity.
I am from the first generation of a Nigerian family now living in the USA; hence, my relationship with my identity differs greatly from third, fourth, or tenth generation Americans. First generation Nigerian Americans, are torn between two cultural identities. America is the cultural environment that I grew up in, so I am naturally most connected to it. Yet,at the same time, my identity has many aspects of Nigerian culture. Sometimes, those aspects alienate me from mainstream America. First generation American citizens live in their own unique cultural community. Although they can assimilate quite smoothly, it would be misleading to assume that first generation citizens grapple with their American identity in the same way as American citizens of different generations.
The difference this creates in my approach to representing America was most evident during my cultural presentation at ZhongZheng Elementary School in Jincheng. I included mainstream popular music as well as "Afrobeats" from Nigeria and Ghana. The students kept asking if everyone in America listens to this. They desperately attempted to connect me with the entire population of the USA. However, I found it challenging to represent the United States based on the concept of a single holistic culture.
While explaining my background and upbringing to my students, I realized that the diversity of my upbringing is what makes me truly American. The frustrations of communicating inconsistencies when presenting American culture brought me to terms with the flexible nature of the "American identity."