As I mentioned on the landing page of this site, Frankenculture came about because I was insecure about my cultural identity. I've mentioned my cultural identity many times throughout my life, but I've always found it difficult to explain it to myself or to others.
I used to rely on situational statements- if I was in Australia, I would say I was from Hong Kong but grew up in Sydney. If I was in Hong Kong, I would say I'm from Australia. If I was in China (a very rare occurrence!) I would say I was from Guangzhou or Hong Kong, depending on who I was speaking to. And in the UK, I relied a lot on my ethnicity to carry my story of where I was from.
And even when prodded, I still managed to strip it down to a single barebones sentence- "I'm from Hong Kong, but I'm Australian by passport and grew up between Hong Kong and Australia." For some inexplicable reason, I was (and still am at times!) afraid to disclose my full cultural identity in it's weird, hodgepodge state.
So in doing this project, it's also allowed me to gain a more objective view of my culture and what I possibly am. At this point in time (2017), I'd say I'm mostly Hong Konger, with a strong and wide streak of Western culture propagated by my stint in Australia with a sprinkling of the UK here and there. There is the tiniest dusting of China in my build too- if I had to break it into percentages, it would look like this:
| HONG KONG | AUSTRALIA | UK | CHINA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80% | 10% | 8% | 2% |
And now I think, I have a clearer image of who I am, where I'd like to be and how to quantify myself and my unique, in between, hodegepodge state into something that I understand and feel open to talk about, instead of hiding.
Easy! If you're someone who has a: fragmented cultural identity / inbetweener culture / is culturally displaced / a hodgepodge of cultures / etc., you're able to use this system and methodology to build things to allow you to talk about your culture- whether that's just with yourself or others.
And in contrast, if you're someone who is: comfortable in their cultural identity, you can collaborate with others and create new things, new potentials and learn more about other cultures and people out there, which can only help you in the long run.