Being Global, Being Inclusive, Being Neutral
While Western values might threaten to dominate other cultures with the spread of global culture, making them the same, global citizenship is a provided chance for people to stand on the neutral ground, which helps them to view problems more rationally and accordingly with different cultural values.
My childhood memories start from China, just like other Chinese children except I was born in Italy, and Chinese unique traditions and cultural values are deeply embedded in my mind. The close relationship of Chinese families provides me a sense of belonging, and I treasure my relationship with my parents. As I studied abroad in Switzerland, I spend most of my vacations in Italy because Italy is closer to Switzerland, and I started to learn the Italian language and understand many Italian cultures and customs: Italian food, their slow pace of life, and the scenery. My values are also gradually influenced as I tend to focus more on individual freedom and rights. Although I am part of my family, I am independent of if, and myself is prior to my family. Besides that, my study life in Switzerland also changed me. For the first year of my school life, I was shocked by all the cultural differences I have seen, and I was not used to the close distance and physical contact that some of my classmates have. Through knowing my classmates and making new friends, I understood more about different cultures, and I became much more open-minded with the different cultures I have seen in my international school.
Nevertheless, some say that globalization diminishes or even eliminates the importance of culture and traditions. Admittedly, my original traditions of Chinese culture become less important since I studied abroad. Being in an environment that has rarely any Chinese element, my Chinese identity seldom appears except in situations like International Week. For the first year of studying in Switzerland, I was not used to having holidays for Christmas instead of Spring Festival, and the atmosphere of Christmas is much stronger than that of Spring Festival. I started to exchange presents with friends under the Christmas tree and wear Christmas sweaters at school, but I could only receive red pockets online and hardly ever get chances to watch fireworks. Moreover, with the influences of surrounding, my views are getting closer to Western values. While marriage is a very important life thing, especially for women, in Chinese culture, Western culture does not value marriage that much. Therefore, I usually argue with my mom when she claims that a woman’s ultimate life goal is to get married. It does not mean that marriage is not important for me, but its priority order is much more behind than top 1. Moreover, I would never agree with Western dating culture which is dating before the relationship since, in Chinese culture, dating is only for couples who have a relationship. Hence, I make different friends and keep a good relationship with them, but I also watch out for the distance with my male friends, and I have a distinct boundary line between friends and boyfriend. In other words, I learn to have neutral values with my global identity.
Global citizenship allows people to stand in the middle of the balance scale to weigh different sides, considering cultural differences. To be more specific, people usually have different perspectives because they value and view things differently, which is deeply influenced by their cultures. For instance, Westen people and Chinese tend to have opposite attitudes towards wearing face masks during the covid time because of their cultural differences. Because Chinese culture demonstrated collectivism, citizens put the benefits of groups prior to the individual, resulting in higher obedience to the government compared to the individualism of Western culture. To be more specific, because of the individualism of Western culture, western people tend to put their personal freedom higher than most things, and wearing face masks or quarantine is obviously sacrificing their individual liberty for a collectivist notion, which in this case, control the spreading of the covid in the country. Thus, some of them refused to give their freedom of decision to the government, leading to refusion wearing face masks. On the other hand, with the fear of death and high obedience to the government, many Chinese people exaggerated the case by wearing not only face masks, but also other protective equipment such as rubber gloves or even safety goggles. Hence, instead of taking only one side, either refusing masks for freedom or fully armed, I understand people’s opinions and decisions from both sides, forming a neutral ground to make rational decisions: wearing masks to protect myself but not too exaggerated.
Furthermore, the problem of people who don’t consider both sides might result in extreme nationalism and patriotism, and easily evolves into racism. Specifically, when people only focus on their nations and not understand other countries, cultural supremacy might be formed and they might not have the correct cognition of their countries, leading to extreme nationalism and patriotism. What’s worse, people who have cultural supremacy usually underestimate other countries or cultures, which causes racism because the belief of their countries or nations is superior is deeply rooted in their minds. Therefore, we should always expand our horizons and understand the world to a larger extent. Receiving global news is never a goal that hard to achieve, making people aware of world issues if they really care about the world. Also, traveling and experiencing another culture instead of visiting sceneries is helpful to become more open-minded as long as they are willing to accept new changes.
My global identity is a tool to help me have my thoughts, not follow others, and make decisions reasonably after considering and understanding every side. It never means that we don’t consider our original cultures, on the contrary, I weigh all the cultures that inside me equally. Only by thinking more comprehensively and inclusively, people will know their ultimate choice. Even though the process of everyone would have rational thinkings and decision making is difficult, with global identity, it will become much shorter and easier to achieve.
