“The Effects of Japanese and Indian Immigration on
Youth Identity and Popular Culture in the United States”
by Michael Brandon Harris-Peyton
Assignment Description: In your final, longer essay, you will have the opportunity to explore an issue or debate related to the lives of young people and the process of growing up. You will write an expository essay in which you research an issue that interests you and that connects to the theme of coming of age and youth culture. Your focus should be on contemporary issues and culture (you may refer to one or more of the texts that we’ve discussed in the course).
Teacher: Dr. Ibieta
The United States is not a culturally homogenous nation; it is, by its nature, a multicultural entity. The level of multiculturalism that is common in the United States has changed and is changing, and progressing towards a system which encourages multicultural identity. The model of cultural assimilation and sameness has largely been replaced by a more multicultural model, encouraging immigrants to retain some of their native cultural identity. The precise moment that this multicultural movement emerged is unclear; however, its origin in America’s “Melting-Pot” ideology is apparent. The idea behind the “Melting-Pot” (a phrase coined from the title of a 1908 stage play by Israel Zangwill) is that immigrants would both assimilate and contribute to the culture of America—and that eventually, American would homogenize and have a common cultural identity. This idea, however, has been replaced by a more multicultural model. This movement towards greater multiculturalism is particularly evident in immigrant groups which have arrived recently in the United States—particularly the Japanese and Asian Indian groups—and the effects of this movement are most apparent in youth culture and cultural identity.
When this multicultural model became common, the assimilation concept changed from a Melting-Pot to a sort of Stew—homogenous cultural identity fell out of favor, and the idea of a diverse mix as part of a larger whole emerged. “Post-1965 immigration primarily from Asia…has posed a serious challenge to classical assimilation theory and given rise to alternative explanations such as pluralism and segmented assimilation” (Alba and Nee 1). Complete Assimilation transitioned to “Segmented Assimilation”—people were encouraged to participate in both the American cultural experience and in their own ethnic cultural experiences. This progression towards multicultural identity, and its effects upon Youth and popular culture, is particularly evident in accounts of Indian and Japanese cultural integration and immigration.
The growing trend towards a more multicultural identity is accordingly evident in the nation’s youth—both the children of recent immigrants and the children of naturalized Americans. The common question “What’s your heritage?” is rarely answered “I am an American”. More often, people will list the places where their ancestors came from, perhaps hyphenating “American” to the description. As a result of multiculturalism, youth today often identify with both American popular culture and with culture(s) of their ancestral origin. As a result of this cultural duality, certain ethnic traditions are kept, parts of popular American culture are absorbed, and bits of both are melded or changed. Youth, being the “creators” of popular culture, contribute this multicultural identity to it; youth both change and are changed by popular culture. In short, the growing trend towards a multicultural national identity has a profound effect on youth and on popular culture. Recent examples of this concept lie in examining the effects of immigration from India and Japan.
Perhaps the most illustrative example of the effect of multiculturalism on youth in recent times has been the rapid expansion in immigration from India to the United States. According to Reporter Brian Knowlton of the International Herald Tribune: “The ethnic Indian population of the United States has soared…From 2000 to 2005 it swelled by 640,000, to 2.3 million, a 38 percent growth rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau” (Knowlton 1). The situation of these Indian immigrants is unique because of the relative speed and unusual cultural nature of this immigration trend. Many Indians, usually fairly young upon arriving in the United States, assimilated certain parts of popular culture—the way Americans dress, speak, the television programs Americans watch, et cetera. There is however, a great deal of cultural retention—a majority of Indian immigrants keep the diets, religious beliefs, and aesthetic culture of India. Their children have a similar cultural identity—they adopt some American traits and some Indian traits.
The first generation of descendants of Indian immigrants have, in general, adopted parts of American culture and tradition—ways of dressing, popular music, and other social rules and conventions. One particularly profound change with this first generation was the adoption of American gender roles. The descendants of Indian immigrants have, in many forms, abandoned the gender conventions of Indian culture in favor of the American, more egalitarian system of gender roles. For example, the Indian cultural tradition of arranged or partially-arranged marriages has, in general, not carried over to the US. It has instead been replaced with the American cultural system of “dating” and the selection of one’s own spouse (Dasgupta 1). The article “Gendered Ethnicity” notes that “Gender relations and constructs are reworked during the course of immigration and settlement and are crucial to the Hindu American ethnicity developed in the United States” (Kurien 2). The idea of restricted gender roles common in India and elsewhere—the woman’s place in the home and the man’s place as the provider of support, for example—has been replaced with the egalitarian model common in the United States; the model is “reworked” (Kurien 4). While a certain sense of conservatism is common, many children of Indian immigrants live with a system of gender roles and social conventions that is American, in addition to other aspects of American popular culture, like modes of dress and popular music.
As much as Indian youth and immigrants have been changed by American culture, they have changed it. In recent years, for example, clothing and fabrics with traditionally Indian patterns or themes have become common. Images of traditional Hindu deities are common in popular visual art, and have become immensely popular, particularly with mid-to-upper class youth in cosmopolitan, suburban and urban areas. The number of Indian restaurants is growing in these areas as well, and Indian-styled music and movies are becoming more popular. “Bollywood,” the informal name of the Indian Film Industry, is experiencing an increase in popularity in the United States, particularly among young people, both Indian and non-Indian. The growing influence and presence of people of Indian heritage, especially in the white-collar middle class, translates into an increased influence on popular culture. Thus, Indian-American youth have a certain sense of cultural duality—they popularize certain parts of their heritage, while adopting certain American cultural conventions. There is a “hybridization of culture” (Alba and Nee 3) occurring; a mixing and adjusting to create a new youth culture, and accordingly, a new popular culture.
Another example of this multicultural trend towards cross-cultural merging is the gradual adoption of Japanese culture into American popular culture, and the concurrent adoption of aspects of American culture into Japanese popular culture. This, even more so than the Indian example, is facilitated almost entirely by young people, and based primarily, although not exclusively, upon immigration. Aspects of Japanese culture have leaked into American popular culture through immigration and consistent economic exchange—unlike the Indian-American cultural situation, which depends almost entirely upon immigration. Young people in the United States have embraced certain products of Japanese culture, making a particular branch of US popular culture inherently multicultural. For example, the growing popularity of Japanese animated film and television, graphic novels, and novelty foods among some American youth has created a popular culture subgroup that is specifically multicultural. This sort of cross-cultural adoption would not have occurred without immigration.
The vast majority of Japanese-American multiculturalism was introduced by Japanese immigrants, starting in the post-World War II era and expanding ever since. Youth culture has been affected by the contributions of Japanese immigrants and the descendants of these immigrants were, inversely, affected by American popular culture. Like the descendants of Indian immigrants, second generation Japanese immigrants adopted American ways of dressing, American gender-roles and social conventions, and in many cases the American diet. The Japanese, like many Asian groups immigrating to the US have “moved to cities and towns where few Asian Americans had lived before and are doing things to earn their livelihood they could have never imagined when they were in their homelands” (Kim ix). As with other immigrant groups, they maintained a multicultural identity by retaining some of their heritage’s traditions—in particular, their mass media, music, and cultural values (Newitz 3).
Japanese-American immigrants have changed popular culture through their immigration to America. Japanese immigrants first introduced aspects of Japanese popular culture to the United States—for example, Japanese television and film, which was later adopted into the American pop culture mainstream through trade and economic relationships. The growth of popularity of Japanese food—most evidently sushi—in popular youth culture during the 1980s and 1990s is the result of increased Japanese-American influence in US culture. Another contribution to American popular youth culture, via Japanese immigration and economic partnership, is Karaoke. Ultimately, multiculturalism emerges—Japanese immigrants adopt aspects of US popular culture; US popular culture and youth culture accept, acknowledge, and absorb some aspects of Japanese culture. This creates a multicultural identity for both the immigrants and the naturalized US citizens.
However, the growing popularity and awareness of Japanese popular culture in American popular culture has also resulted from methods partly independent of ethnic ties: namely, economic exchange. Naturalized American youth, for example, may watch Japanese game shows, or Japanese animated film and television. This is, in fact, relatively common among participants in popular culture. Japanese visual media is increasingly popular in American culture—this is creating changes in popular culture, and introducing new trends and ideas which were not present before. For example, Anime—Japanese animated film and/or television—is increasingly common, and has changed the preexisting stereotype of animated media being only for young children (Newitz all). According to one analysis of the effects of Japanese immigration in 1995, “the past seven years have seen a massive expansion and organization of American fans of Japanese animation [‘Anime’]” (Newitz 1). In fact, “Anime” is almost always targeted to people in their mid- to late-teens. Slang English has adopted some words from Japan: “Anime” was a loanword from Japanese which, ironically, originated from a Japanese loanword from English, “Animation”. This illustrates the nature of the growing affects of multiculturalism on youth culture—youth culture affects and is affected by multiculturalism.
The examples of Indian and Japanese culture and immigration illustrate how youth culture is affected by multiculturalism. The descendants of these immigrants are given a multicultural identity, embracing both American and their own ethnic traditions and culture. Their multicultural identity affects popular culture, which is constructed primarily by young people, affecting the cultural identity of all young people in the United States. Thus, multicultural identity is not restricted to the descendants of immigrants; all of youth culture is inherently multicultural as a result of immigration and cultural exchange. “Segmented assimilation” (Alba and Nee 1) causes the immigrants’ culture to be changed by US popular culture, while US popular culture is also changed by the arrival of these new cultures.
The subject matter of youth and multiculturalism is so important because of its historical relevance: Every young person in the United States is affected, and never before has a level of globalization been reached to allow such a multicultural identity to form. The examples of recent Indian and Japanese immigration and cultural contribution make this movement towards multiculturalism evident. The young people of today are growing up in an increasingly multicultural society, and this will affect their cultural identity as adults, future politicians, influential people, workers, parents, et cetera. Multiculturalism is shaping the identities and ideologies of youth, and therefore, o the future of humanity. Every young person is affected in some way by the Multicultural Movement.
This is ultimately what can be learned from this research—that multiculturalism as a movement has affected youth culture in the United States in a profound way, and that no young person is entirely removed from this multicultural identity. Multiculturalism is two sided—affecting both the “foreign” culture and the American culture. In the cases of India and Japan, recent immigrants from those countries have changed, and are changed by, youth culture in the United States. Ultimately, multiculturalism among young people leads to a multiple-culture identity. The effects of the Multicultural Movement will stay with young people as they grow, affecting the future of the nation, and ultimately, the world. The affects of a multicultural national identity on youth is profound, and will influence future popular culture and cultural identity.
Works Cited
Alba, Richard, and Victor Nee. Remaking The American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Harvard University Press, 2003.
Dasgupta, Shamita Das. “Gender Roles and Cultural Continuity in the Asian Indian Immigrant Community in the U.S.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 38 (1998) : 953-974.
Kim, Elaine. “Introduction” (Page ix) in Charlie Chan is Dead. Ed. Jessica Hagerdorn. New York. 1993.
Knowlton, Brian. “Indo-Americans Relish a Growing Community.” International Herald Tribune: Americas 29 October 200 <http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/29/news/indians.php>.
Kurien, Prima. “Gendered Ethnicity: Creating a Hindu Indian Identity in the United States.” American Behavioral Scientist 42 (1999) : 648-670.
Newitz, Anaalee. “Magical Girls and Atomic Bomb Sperm: Japanese Animation in America.” Film Quarterly. 1995: 2-14.
Works Referenced:
Zangwill, Israel. “The Melting Pot” (Play). 1908.
