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White Centered Thinking
Where it came from and what it means for Western culture
I recently finished reading Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, the first book in a sci-fi trilogy written by a Chinese author. It is very much a Chinese story that takes place against the history of the Cultural Revolution with distinctly Chinese backdrops. It was constantly brought up as one of the top books to read in recent times, and I thought I’d finally give it a try. I was glad I did. Typically I don’t read a lot of genre fiction. Something about the language and the types of storylines don’t seem to appeal to me. Yet with this book, it spoke to me differently.
I am Asian-Canadian, more specifically Vietnamese-Chinese-Canadian. I will admit up front, I barely know how to read any Chinese beyond writing my own name, my spoken Cantonese is the equivalent of an elementary school kid in Hong Kong. I also don’t know Vietnamese at all. I am very much a Canadian first, whatever that means. Despite that, I did learn about Chinese stories growing up and going to Chinese school on Sundays, at least until I quit in grade eight. Reading Cixin’s work, despite being translated (really well) into English, I could tell there was a Chinese rhythm and tone to it. Other than the clear Chinese historical influence, which I only have a surface level familiarity with, there were some uniquely Asian…