Diasporas and Twister – “The game that ties you up in knots!”

As the discussion of hybridity and the negotiation between identities and cultures continued in class this week, I could not help but think of the game Twister. In this game people’s bodies are crisscrossed over various locations, intertwined with the other players of the game. Similarly, within the multicultural landscape of Canada, diasporas straddle various locations, shifting from one to the next, never quite forming a solid identity. Just when you think you may have a direction laid out, another move shifts everyone into another location, causing a domino effect of cultural dissolution and assimilation. A player wins the game once everyone else has fallen and they are left standing in some crazy, awkward position. Oftentimes it seems we can have that same perception of diaspora groups and multiculturalism. The culture seen as the most hybrid is the one which can adopt the most diversity while still standing firm in the origins and traditions of their homeland.

Arjun Appadurai’s explanation of ethnoscapes and mediascapes further explores this notion of diaspora and hybridity. Appardurai works through the concept of the ‘imagine world’ whereby “the lines between the ‘realistic’ and the fictional landscape…are blurred, so that the further away these audiences are from the direct experience of metropolitan life, the more likely they are to construct ‘imagined worlds’” (299). As such, the developing world, through the media, is able to create an image of the developed world – a modernized world. However, a question I was thinking of in class is, how much of an ‘imagined world’ do we create of developing nations? It is fair to say that just as media shapes the worldview on Western culture, so too does it shape the narrative of the developing world. Unless we have visited these nations and got a direct eye witness to the standard of living, we would not have an accurate narrative of their life. Diasporas living within Canada, through alternative media outlets, can help correct our cultural blindness. We often frame what nations are experiencing within our Western perspective, not realizing that this perspective is heavily loaded with our privileged views on democracy and freedom.

Sinclair and Cunningham’s description of hybridity draws attention to the struggle and “knots” formed between host and home nation. While traveling I am sure all of us have in some way experienced the feeling of alienation, but it is hard for myself to imagine this experience as a permanent one. I remember my travels in Spanish speaking communities and the uncertainty and feeling of not belonging I felt. As I logged onto the Internet in the city café, I found myself feeling at ease with the ability to communicate with my family, in my mother tongue, over email. The technoscapes of our culture may create unrealistic narratives of the world, but they also help form new people’s groups. Within these groups, identity flows, transcending time and space and above all provides for opportunities of political and social change.