Taken from a post from my blog: okayzoeyk.com I know this is a bold title, and after you’re done reading it you may be like “Wow really Zoey seriously? A painting?” but if you know me, than you know this is no ordinary painting. This is the Arnolfini Double Portrait by Jan van Eyck from […]
One Australian Nation?
On January 26, Australia Day, I attended two festivals in Sydney. The first was the Aboriginal Yabun festival, held in a park with vendors, food, music, and performances embracing Aboriginal culture. The second was a “traditional” Australia Day celebration in Darling Harbor, with fireworks and patriotic enthusiasm. While the majority of Australians celebrate January 26 […]
Locality First, Nationality Second
How long do you have to live in a city before you can say you’re “from” there? How many people do you have to know? How many restaurants do you have to eat at before you can say the words, “I’m from this city,” and not feel like a phony? The question, “Where are you […]
On paying someone to carry your groceries for you
I fancy that I am not ethnocentric at all—although I certainly make comparisons from others cultures to my own, I don’t think of myself as making judgements. And after living in a couple different cultures and really trying to understand them (to the best of my ability in the time I was there), I don’t […]
The Value of Cultural Comparison
Ethnocentrism is a term that describes the tendency for people to view another culture through the lens of their own cultural upbringing, placing their culture at the center and scaling all cultures in reference to it. I can see how this can easily be a negative exercise, as it automatically implies a sense of superiority […]