Representation

Can texts ever be truly representative of groups of people? 

In my opinion, it is very difficult for a text to be truly representative of a group of people. This is mainly because most texts don’t prioritize the actual representation of a community over the storyline. Take the movie Crazy Rich Asian for example, according to an article in Wear Your Voice Magazine written by Sangeetha Thanapal, the movie does little to portray an accurate representation of Singaporean life. For one, it doesn’t represent any ethnic groups other than Chinese-Singaporean leaving out a critical part of the community in Singapore. As the article explains, the reason for this could be because the Chinese-Singaporean ethnic group makes up 70% of Singapore’s population and they are seen as the ‘elite’. This unconscious bias towards representing Singapore in the best light possible prioritizes the story and glamour over reality. Of course, not all examples are this extreme, however, it goes to show why texts shouldn’t be taken at face value especially when trying to gauge a better understanding of a group of people.

How does identity play a role in how we understand or respond to texts? 

Identity plays a major role in how we understand and respond to texts because when we read them, we are reading from a perspective shaped by our own experiences. It is these experiences that end up shaping your identity. Let’s take a look at an example scenario. Someone who has worked as a UN aid for refugee camps will most likely have a much better understanding of stories of refugees on the news compared to someone who works in the city and has no connection to this side of the world. Stories like this would be more sensitive to those who can empathize with them, and this is only possible if that person has had real-world experience in a subject/problem like it. Generally, it is hard to see how different people might react to different texts because we don’t know what their background is or what their perspectives are. Especially when the only perspective we have had our entire lives is our own. This is why it is important to be open when discussing various texts as others can pick up very different meanings and lessons from the same piece.