COLLECTIVE IDENTITY REVISION

British Asians may see themselves as BrAsians - hybrid identities- whose family life is a site of conflict because of differing approaches to cultural practices. We have looked at several texts with this focus:  Bend It Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha),  East Is East (dir. Damien O'Donell, screenplay Auyub Khan Din), Anita And Me (Meera Syal, 2002).

In these texts, a hybrid identity is forged by second and third generation British Asians but the new hybrid identity is not accepted by the parents, forcing the children to mask / hide their behaviours or to openly defy their parents and face the ensuing conflict. Cultural practices are at the heart of the matter: clothing, food, obedience to parents, mother tongue, marriage, rites such as circumcision, permitted freedoms, religious observance.

Many second & third generation immigrants openly and confidently challenge their parents (Anita), whilst others 'bend', showing flexibility and moving between two cultures (Bend It Like Beckham) but some feel forced to hide their real identities in the face of entrenched traditional values (East Is East, where 'east' and 'west' do not meet). For Erving Goffman, identity becomes a matter of performance, with front and back stage behaviours, which serve to define appropriate behaviours in two different spheres. For example, Tariq pays lip service to obeying his Muslim father but morphs into his western identity as Tony at college and in the night club. Some conflict leads to outright war, with positions taken that are poles apart, as when Nazir is disowned by George after fleeing an arranged marriage for a homosexual relationship. The message of this film is that hybrid identities are not accepted by traditional Muslim parents.