Memoir, Identity and Consumption
Hua Hsu鈥檚 memoir deals with his and Ken鈥檚 identities and their likely/ unlikely friendship in college. As two Asian-American boys, many may see them as similar. But Hua who is a second-generation Taiwanese immigrant, and Ken who is a Japanese-American are different in many ways. Hua talks about Ken鈥檚 family as 鈥淎ll American鈥� and judges Ken based on his consumption choices which Hua considers mainstream 鈥� from wearing Abercrombie and Fitch to listening to Dave Matthews Band. It is interesting that what Hua equates to mainstream is largely upper middle class, suburban, white culture. This is explored further when he talks about Ken鈥檚 family having been in the US for 鈥渟everal generations鈥� and that when he had met 鈥減oised, content people, like Ken, they were white.鈥�
Hua as a second generation Asian-American immigrant is trying to trace the multifaceted, fragmented relationship between ethnicity, identity and consumption in his college days as he tries to 鈥渞ebrand himself鈥� and find his group membership. Consumption often helps identify group membership and define group self. Hua is trying to sort his classmates based on their consumption choices, not just in music, films, books, but also the 鈥減osters on their walls鈥� and where they bought their clothes. Throughout his time at Berkeley, especially at the beginning of his college years, we see Hua trying to find new traditions, rituals, inside jokes and similar devices to create group membership. A place to belong.
While many do this unconsciously, we know in marketing and consumer behavior studies that products and brands are not only consumed for their functional value but also because of their symbolic values, especially in communicating cultural meaning. Moreover, consumption in contemporary subcultural contexts is often fraught with countervailing and ever shifting meanings. After Ken鈥檚 murder, the same rituals, products and brands that were once everyday and mundane aspects of their lives, take on sacred meaning to Hua. Whether it was drinking 鈥淣ewcastle Brown Ale鈥� or the 鈥渓ast pack of cigarettes鈥� they had been smoking, Hua finds new meaning in these brands and products.
In Hua鈥檚 memoir, I find the role of consumption intricately interlinked with not just his race and ethnicity, but his age, socio-economic standing, gender, etc. all contributing towards his unique sense of identity. Over the course of his college years and beyond, his identity continues to evolve and integrates new relationships and groups, new possibilities, and forms with old traditions.
As you start your college years, you too may consciously or subconsciously use brands to showcase your identity, and find your own traditions, rituals and inside jokes to create your own groups. Our lives, our identities and our consumption all help in creating and communicating who we are to the rest of the world. It creates a dialogical model that is often conflicted, contested and complex. Like we all are.