ABC與香蕉
“ABC” and "banana"
A professor of mine once told a story about when she went to the United States to study.A native Eritrean, she had received a scholarship to pursue a bachelor's degree at an American university. The university organized a trip to Disneyland for her and the other international students. Before the group of international students went to Los Angeles, the coordinators of the trip informed the students from Africa that they should wear their "traditional" costumes, not Western-style clothing.Why?The coordinators were afraid that the African students would be "mistaken" for African-Americans simply because their skin color was also dark.At that time, the 1960s, there was still much overt racial discrimination against African-Americans.Insgroupsto avoid trouble, the coordinators wanted to make sure that their African students did not look African-American.
ABC與香蕉
我上大學時的一位教授說起過她來美國上學時的一件事。作為一個厄立特里亞人，她得到了到美國上大學的獎學金。學校為她以及其他國際學生組織了一次去迪斯尼的出游活動。在這批國際學生去洛杉磯之前，活動組織者通知來自非洲的學生要穿上他們的傳統彩衣，而不要穿西方人的衣服。這是為什么呢？組織者是擔心非洲學生因其膚色是黑的而被誤認為是美國黑人。在那時候――二十世紀六十年代，仍然存在著很多公然針對美國黑人的種族歧視。為了避免麻煩，組織者想確保自己的非洲學生看上去不像當地黑人。
She ended her story by asking us to think about what we thought she was before we had met her. Her last name is Italian; did we think she was Italian? When we first saw her, did we assume that she was a black American?How much can we really know about a person based upon hair color, skin color, facial structure or body shape?
Identity is a difficult subject to discuss because it is so personal, and it is even more difficult to describe someone's identity clearly in a country like the USswheresjust about everyone's family came from somewhere else. My professor, until she left Eritrea, always considered herself Eritrean.When she got to America, however, people looked at her and saw a black woman, not an Eritrean woman. Similarly, Japanese, Koreans and Chinese people come to the US and are often just called "Asians".Appearance is used as the main condition for identity, although appearances can be quite deceiving.
她講完了這段故事，要我們想一想在我們見到她之前是怎么猜想她的。她的姓是意大利人的姓，我們是不是以為她是意大利人？當我們第一次見到她時，是否以為她是個美國黑人？通過頭發顏色、皮膚顏色、面部結構和體型，我們能真正了解一個人多少呢？
一個人的身份是個難于討論的題目，因為這是一個太個性化的問題。而在美國這樣的國家，要想清楚地描述一個人的身份就更困難，因為這里幾乎每一個人的家庭都來自另一個地方。我的這位教授在離開厄立特里亞之前，一直認為自己是厄立特里亞人。然而，在她到了美國之后，人們看到她后便見到了一個黑人婦女，并不知道她是厄立特里亞婦女。同樣，日本人、韓國人和中國人到了美國后通常被叫做亞洲人。人的相貌是身份的主要方面，雖說相貌有時是很具有欺騙性的。
Is there a difference between a Chinese person born in China and a person born in the US to parents from China?Most people would agree that there is.There are certain phrases that people frequently use insgroupsto define the Chinese-American identity. The two most commonly heard terms are "ABC", meaning an American-born Chinese, and "banana".The former is often considered an acceptable label for people of Chinese descent born in the US; in Canada there is the corresponding term "CBC" for Canadian-born Chinese.The second term, banana, is usually regarded as derogatory or offensive, and it refers to someone who is "yellow" on the outside but "white" on the inside.
The phrase ABC is used so commonly that many people think it is an appropriate description of Chinese-Americans.However, the phrase hides what I think is a very dangerous belief about identity. Identity is developed and learned, not given at birth.To say that someone is an American-born Chinese is to suggest that if that person were born anywhere else in the world, he/she would still be fundamentally Chinese because Chineseness, the quality of being Chinese, is inherent in this person.It implies that an ABC is Chinese first and just happened to be born in the United States.Yet being Chinese is not an inherent quality that one person has simply because he or she looks Chinese.Just about every Chinese-American recognizes that there are huge differences in personality, behavior and physical appearance between themselves and their native Chinese counterparts.
一個生在中國的中國人與一個父母來自中國但生在美國的人之間有什么不一樣嗎？多數人會同意有所區別。有一些人們常常使用的慣用語用來界定美國華人的身份，兩個最常聽到的是“ABC”和香蕉，前者是“出生在美國的中國人”的英文縮寫，通常被認為是可以接受的用給出生在美國的中國人后裔貼的標簽；在加拿大也有相應的說法“CBC”，用來指在加拿大出生的中國人。第二個慣用語香蕉，通常被認為是貶義的或是冒犯人的，它是指某人外表是黃皮膚而內心卻是白人的一套。
ABC一詞被用得如此之廣泛，以至于很多人認為用它形容美籍華人挺合適。然而，這個詞隱藏著我認為是對身份而言很危險的信條。身份是后天發展起來的，是不斷學來的，并不是出生時就定下來的。說某人是出生在美國的中國人，也就暗示著這個人不管生在世界的什么地方，可從根上還是中國人，因為中國特性，也就是作為一個中國人所具有的品質是此人固有的。它暗含著一個ABC首先是中國人，只不過碰巧生在了美國。然而，一個中國人的品質，并非僅僅是因為他或她長得像中國人而固有的品質。幾乎每一個美籍華人都意識到自己與土生土長的中國人在個性、舉止、外表等方面有著很大差異。
These differences are what the term "banana" addresses.Bananas are yellow-skinned but with white insides - for people, this is meant to describe individuals who look Chinese but whose "insides", that is, their behavior and personality, are "white".But this also carries a demeaning and offensive undertone: that these people are only half-real, they are neither completely Chinese nor actually white. Even worse, the term is sometimes used to suggest that Chinese-Americans really wish that they were white.Being white, of course, is assumed to mean being American, which is a third misconception.Not all Americans are white, and in not too many years the majority of the population in America won't be white (i.e. of purely European descent) at all.
Identity for everyone is a matter of experience and circumstance, not skin color or general appearance.What terms like ABC and banana ignore is that being Chinese-American constitutes a very real identity in its own right.Chinese-Americans are not necessarily caught between the East and the West.The Chinese-American identity is one that has developed over many generations in the US (since the 1840s), but one that can also be shared by recent immigrants and their families.It is important because it is different, because it is the product of blending social and cultural influences, and these differences should be recognized and not brushed aside.
這些差異正是“香蕉”一詞所要說明的。香蕉外黃里白――對于人來說，這用來形容那些看上去是中國人但是“內里”也就是舉止、個性都是“白人”式的。但它具有貶損和冒犯人的含義：這些人只是一半真實的人，他們既不是完全的中國人也不是真正的白人。更糟的是，這一叫法有時被用來暗指美籍華人實際上希望自己是白人。當然，一個白人會被認為是美國人，這是另一個錯誤概念。并非所有的美國人都是白人，用不了很多年，美國人口的多數就根本不會是白人(也就是純歐洲人的后裔)了。
每個人的身份是經歷與環境造就的，而不是皮膚的顏色或一般的長相所界定的。ABC與香蕉的叫法所忽略的是：一個美籍華人自身就包含著非常實在的身份。美籍華人并不一定在東西方的文化中左右為難。美籍華人的身份是那種自19世紀40年代起在美國繁衍了好幾代的人，與那些最近移民到美國的人及其家庭是不一樣的。身份之所以重要，是因為身份各不相同，也因為它是社會影響與文化影響相融的產物。這一區別應該被人們所認識，而不該受到忽視。
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