Culture and Cultural Appropriation

I think culture belongs to everyone, not only the people in that particular community, but also the others, because I feel like it’s actually the wisdom of human that has been accumulated through generations, and they all have some similarities or common features. The traditions in each culture might be very different in a visible/obvious way, and we can usually say that a tradition is from a certain country or region. For example, the Dragon Boat Festival has been recognised as the intangible cultural heritage of China. However, the cultures themselves are always related and connected with the others because of assimilations and adaptations. Therefore, I think the term “cultural appropriation” is also really hard to define, because this means that someone has acknowledged that the culture is owned by a certain group/community, while no one in that community can truly represent everyone else since people have different perspectives and individual opinions. In addition, “cultural appropriation” depends on the intention of that person who starts it off. Sometimes people just want to show appreciation toward a culture, but since they have never experienced it, they cannot truly understand it, so that they would misrepresent the culture or make some mistakes. At this time, maybe the people in that culture could teach the others what their culture truly is, which would then raise cultural awareness and promote cultural diversity. I personally think that this will be a more beneficial solution to speak out for the culture compared to directly criticising.

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