Growing up in Taiwan, I have observed that ethnic conflict has been deeply rooted in history between the Hokkien-speaking islanders who had settled in Taiwan for hundreds of years and the Mandarin-speaking mainlanders who were exiled to Taiwan after the civil war in China in 1947. The islanders pointed fingers at the mainlanders for dominating the politics and media, while the mainlander accused the other of playing victims.
Although hate crimes are rare, discrimination based simply on spoken accent occur on a daily basis. An old Chinese proverb summarizes it all: “Those who are not our kin are sure to be of a different heart.” I thought that was the way of life.
However, Canadian multiculturalism shattered my arcane view when I immigrated with my family to Canada in 1993. Unlike the U.S. melting pot, where immigrants are assimilated into a single “American” identity, the Canadian ideology advocates the concept of mosaic, in which each person maintains and respects their own unique individuality and together forms a unified whole. This is the Canadian identity. This is a country where a church, mosque, and temple can stand side by side on a single street block, and different accent is treated as beautiful. For the first time in my life, I am immersed in a diverse yet friendly environment where my classmates could come from Slovakia, Korea, India, or Chile.
I intend to contribute to the diverse LBS community with an open heart that embraces multiculturalism and respect. I strive to uphold an environment that does not expect all these exceptional students to conform to a single point of view but rather promotes acceptance and integration of each individual’s opinions to form a brilliant mosaic, the LBS identity that I would be proud to be a part of.