Living the multi-culti lifestyle

Incorporating many cultures into how I interact with people, how I dress, how I communicate, what music I listen to, the food I eat, and how I define my life is incredibly important.  I am a bi-racial kid and I choose to define my life in a multi-cultural way. I also think it is a great strategy for all to adopt.  Living, learning, and exploring culture (both in terms of ethnically defined culture and sub-cultures related to ideas, lifestyle, and region) is what I am all about.

Mashing up cultures to produce something utterly unique is cool.  Miller-McCune just published an article that talks about the effectiveness of comparing and contrasting cultures when sparking creativity.

Ultimately, the more you know about the “other,” other cultures and other people, the more you can identify, sympathize, understand, and appreciate people. Incorporating multi-cultural strategies and ideas only strengthens whatever you are trying to do.  Frankly, the current and future social, economic, and political climates demand multi- and inter-cultural knowledge.  People must get familiar with China, India, Brazil, Russia, and other emerging nations in order to effectively compete and collaborate.  Sure, culture is often a sensitive topic that causes great anxiety, war, conflict, and maintaining culture and traditions is extremely important.  I am not advocating a disintegration of culture in favor of pop globalization mash-ups.  I believe in the capacity of cultural knowledge to be fluid and flexible.  In creating a multi-cultural mix, one should have a good understanding of the parts that make it up.

Below are some of my favorite multi-cultis:

Musicians

Manu Chao: multi-culti musician extraordinaire

M.I.A: excelling through music, art, film, fashion, political activism

Bjork: my idol, my goddess and the genius that dressed her often, the late Alexander McQueen

Designers

Suno: ethical fashion from Kenya and New York

Manish Arora: awesome, psychedelic, super high-end, super avant-garde (fairly unreachable for me except for the collaboration with Reebok).

Oscar Lawalata: an Indonesian designer using traditional costume fused with modern design

I am sure there are many others doing the similar things and I love seeking them out.  If you are a multi-culti and know of other cool projects going on, let me know!