新西兰是一个背负着殖民史的移民国家。因此，对于各个不同文化和种族族群之间进行一种融合尤为重要，且充满着复杂性和相应的挑战。在这样一种背景下，它在呈现其居民不同的文化习俗时，难免会落入一种将其他地区的文化进行“展览”的形式。这种“展览”将某种文化习俗和相关的文化活动抽离它们所在的历史维度以及地理空间的复杂性，把其简化为一个不变的、固定的文化片段。来自中国，我自然被归类于“亚洲”和“中国”文化的类目下。作为一个背负着不同于新西兰本土文化和政治现实的国家历史的个体，我想在此讲述一下在新西兰这几年从我的视角出发、对这种经历的体会。
For any country, it is important to foster a sense of nationality and have each ethnic group lives in harmony with each other. Bearing with itself a history of colonisation, New Zealand is a country of immigrants. Contextualised in this reality, integration between different cultures and ethnic groups is particularly crucial, fraught with complexities and corresponding challenges. Facing this complexity, simplification in the representation of each culture seems inevitable. Coming from somewhere with a different cultural and political reality, I would like to reflect on the experience I have relating to my national and cultural identity in New Zealand.
This is a writing for Wellington Zinefest “Together Apart”, published in August 2021. Through an experience of my hometown food in the middle of COVID-19 lockdown, this writing is to contemplate what the implication of “being at home” can be in different life situations.
It is usually taken for granted by museum visitors that archaeological objects are chronologically displayed according to certain scientific classifications. These methodologies serve a continuous historical narrative, either to promote simplified Darwinian evolution of humanity from primitive to modern, or patriotic sentiments. This methodology also guides the selection of the objects to be exhibited. Yet this leaves us with a rarely asked question—how about objects which cannot be integrated into the museum’s story, and thus are rendered as ‘others,’ by current museology?
Recently, I started being interested in mushrooms. As such an amazing organism, it plays essential roles in the whole ecological system. So during today’s lunchtime, my partner and I searched from YouTube for some videos about mushrooms and watched them together when we had lunch. I would like to talk about one video we have …