In Japan, ancestor worship shows respect not only to your ancestors and the recently departed, but to the family kami if one's family has one.
A family kami is the first male ancestor in your lineage, or he may be the village kami if you have a home village. If the latter tradition is present, then your first male ancestor is Chinese.
In Canada, this heritage is forgotten. If you mention it amongst your relatives, they either mock you or change the subject.
Ah, we Japanese-canadians are too assimilated! We're so assimilated we blend in.
Yet there's an awkward moment when an Asian person talks to me, and I have to reply in English, "Sorry I don't speak Chinese/Korean/Taiwanese."
Though I can still speak Japanese but badly.
No comments:
Post a Comment