Who Wants to be a Mainstreamer

Thanks Francine for establishing the existence of a mainstream culture, the causality of culture, value, behaviour, institution and artefacts. I just wish to add a specific perspective to this already interesting discussion.

The left wing of Western politics has long been advocating that minor cultures should be preserved within a meta-culture. They are behind the rise of multiculturalism. In the 80s, multiculturalism was manifested in English textbooks such as “How to live in America” indoctrinating a generation of Chinese youth in preparing them to study in the West. With these earlier aspirants-turned residents of the West, we formed an overseas Chinese contingent.

Some of us propose that we should be in the process of becoming the hosts of the country that we all aspired to join and eventually joined. Others argue that we should remain being guests, preserving the guest culture, and the host will tolerate the ghetto of cultures. There seems to be a stark contrast between the former who has the sense of ownership of their adopted country, and the latter who refuses to acknowledge acculturation is a necessity rather than a luxury. How would you know you are a mainstreamer? When you have a sense of ownership, or when you feel that there is no longer a “us” and “them”!

But there are commonalities between the two lots of us:

We are all aspirants of Western mainstream cultures. We like the cultures so much that we chose to emigrate into them, leaving almost everything behind. 

We must have arrived at a profile of a mainstream culture, and made an overwhelmingly positive judgement on it long before we emigrate. Whilst propagating that aspiring and subscribing to Western mainstream culture are shameful, these very Chinese emigrants wouldn’t mind living in the West whose mainstream culture they reject. They think they can live in the cocoon of their own silk, a compromise between having a cake and eating it.

The gist of multiculturalism is the peril of Western society. More particularly, it is more detrimental to us, the accused makers of “yellow peril”. The following story tells you why.

I remember an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which may not have been fully recognized by the millions of viewers who watched the show.

Having made it to the contestant's chair opposite Regis Philbin, a young Chinese American medical student from California struggled through the first two questions of the game and then lost on the third question. This is a highly unusual situation given that the first three to four questions of every game are typically "giveaways asking for the most basic of information and offering multiple-choice answers where the correct response is frequently juxtaposed against three obviously incorrect options.

Question 1: Having a________ in his closet. Hint: someone who has a deep dark secret. Answer: skeleton. His answer: pass.

Question 2: Ernie in Sesame Street plays with_______in his bathtub. Hint: a toy. Answer: Rubber Duckie. His answer: pass.

Question 3: ______is the name of a famous cooking school in Paris. Hint: also the name of a movie. Answer: Moulin Rouge. His answer: Cordon Bleu. 

This ends this quick but intense prime time drama.

What happened? How could a young American adult struggle to answer what is, arguably, the most basic of questions? He is full Chinese, was born and raised in the U.S. speaking impeccable American English. Failure to answer these questions is one thing, not motivated and not motivating children to answer them are quite another. I did better than the American born. I only got question 2 wrong.

I would hate to think that this student would do to his decedents what his parents have done to him—the creation of cultural ghettos within a meta-culture is exactly what supplied London Bombing with fourth generation Pakistani-British martyrs. At their births, those British-to-be have little chance in becoming British with their parents and grandparents upholding an anti-West value, and living in a part of Britain where being British is of infidel or disloyalty. 

How long does it take for new Chinese migrants to acculturate? I have no answer, mainly because I am uncertain about how sincere those who refuse to acculturate are in upholding such value when educating their children. And this uncertainty is good news. If a result of a self-administered polygraph showed that those tested really believe in what they say--subscribing to Western culture is shameful, while living in the West, we would have bad news.

Who Wants to be a Mainstreamer? It is not as luxurious as being a millionaire or a millionairess. It is a necessity. And it is not if, it is when. The sooner, the better. For you, and for the country that betters your life and your decedents’ lives.

(This is Killara's original work. Any unauthorised croping or direct translation without my consent contravenes my and human priciple.)