What does it mean to be Chinese in Canada?

Started my morning off with my usual routine, scanning Marketing Mag, Adage and Strategy Online (and if I have the occasional extra time, the Globe & Mail). Came across a column article by Pepper Miller, who founded an agency focused on the African-American market "To Know Market Segments, Know the Many Shades of Black Identity". I really enjoyed this article for its blunt, candid, grassroots and yet professional perspective of what it means to be black in America.

It prodded me to validate Sensu's reason of existence in the Canadian market. (I often like to tell others that we "sell people...Chinese people to be exact". Quite frankly, that's exactly what it is - we are selling an audience and along with it, their lifestyles, habits, attitudes, values and behaviours.)

You can easily apply Pepper Miller's article into the context of being Chinese in Canada. I think that our "shades" become much more complex: we have the fobs, the cbc's, the hongkongers, the mainlanders and even amongst the mainlanders, it breaks down further by region - GZ group is different than those from Shanghai and then different from those in Beijing. Fujian is another story altogether. Infuse the Canadian layer on top of all that...boy must I tell you, mainstream marketers have a LOT to learn and understand about Chinese consumers in Canada.

But I absolutely love the beauty of this complexity, because that is what gives Sensu our real value proposition, that is how we help our clients best. Pepper mentions that "Improving one's African-American cultural IQ is critical to understanding the differences among segments." In parallel, improving one's Chinese-Canadian cultural IQ is critical to understand not only the differences but also similarities, among Chinese segments. Trick is, you cannot really articulate a culture unless you are IN it. Culture is dynamic in nature, it is an experience not a theory, not a rationale.
 
Many clients hold back from committing to multicultural marketing, most of them mention issues with scalability and market size - it's about the bottomline. But they seem to be missing the key point - the nucleus of multicultural marketing that drives cultural activity and growth - is to pay attention to all the subtle differences between and within ethnic segments. To impact the bottomline is to not only recognize that there are subtle differences but also to show your customers that you care and you want to make a connection - an authentic one.

Scalability should not be a barrier to strategy nor creativity. Neither should it come at the sacrifice of authenticity. 

Culture breeds character, diversity shapes communication.

I grew up knowing that people are different. Being one of the very few students from the city in my high school, I noticed how little kids already started labeling each other "suburban" or "urban". Afterwards having spent most of my adolescent life in international dormitories, from Shanghai to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to North American, from North America to Europe, the two words "culture" and "diversity" no longer stop at being definitions on my Sociology textbooks. In my mind, they take forms in stories, pictures, travel journals, body languages, tears, dances, hugs, and even the smell of morning grass I enjoyed when staying at my friend's farm in Scotland.

I didn't realize there even exists culture differences between mainland China and Hong Kong until I actually lived in this mysterious little SAR (Special Administrative Region). I was surprised to witness how its civic culture brings out the city's organized social pace, how its family culture forms the adults' attitudes towards love, how its business culture stores everyone's confidence in performing fair and square, etc.

If say I already experienced a Chinese culture shock when moving from mainland to Hong Kong, then my multiple Asian and western culture shocks definitely broadened my entire world of cultural perception. I was amazed by the similarities between me and the Japanese and Korean, every understanding smile that we had simultaneously when facing a western dilemma reminds me of the Asian cultural roots that we share. I loved the moments when my dutch friends joking about the Germans and could even rap about the two countries' differences without a breath.

So many cultures are described with characters, while at the same time they gave us our very own characters. We walk around without knowing exactly what those characters actually mean. However, when we encounter each other, something called "diversity" starts to make us become aware of who we really are.

Difference exists when there are dissimilarities, it is often a neutral and factual concept being independent from human relationships. Diversity, however, exists not only when there are dissimilarities, but also when there are implications to give such 'diversity' further meanings. Put aside the political debates between the two terminologies, diversity is considered more emotionally involved and associated more with the aesthetic and social perspectives.

Practically grew up in international dorms, I was constantly amused by communications result from diversity in cultures. Completely aware of the different characters that we each has to offer, everyone tend to more openly express confusions or appreciation regarding others' values and opinions, or even question themselves! Stereotypes usually work in the first and create communication platforms for diversity. Conversations and debates exchange for a nice sense of understanding with both one-selves and others. With no doubt, diversity brought us more reasons to believe in this world's broadness and tolerance, as well as a more powerful motivation in continue to learn about the culturally unknowns.

Today, I am still walking in between cultures to experience their characters while forming my own. And I believe for a very very long time, the diversities that happening around us would not stop generating wonderful communications for this big lovely world.