在本周的节目中，我们将探讨地域和文化在身份塑造中的作用。曾几何时，身份与地理的联系要比现在紧密得多。世界上大多数人一生都生活在他们出生的地方或附近。以18世纪的德国哲学家伊曼努尔·康德为例，他在79年的生命中，从未离开他的家乡Königsberg超过几英里。

Now that we’ve entered the so-called “Global Age,” where planes, trains, and automobiles have made traveling great distances so easy, it would be difficult to find someone like Kant. Of course, it's also true that people have been moving around the globe for many thousands of years, but the numbers we’ve seen for mass migration in the 20th and 21st centuries have been unprecedented. And this has changed the way in which place shapes identity.

即使是在美国，一个我称之为家已经十八年的国家，许多人到处迁移，以至于他们不确定如何确切地回答这个问题:“你来自哪里?”也许你是那种母亲来自一个地方，父亲来自另一个地方的人，也许你出生在第三个地方，这个地方可能是也可能不是你长大的地方，你搬到其他地方上学，现在完全生活在另一个地方!这能形容你吗?

All this moving around from place to place has made the question of identity more complicated. Before, when people tended to live in the same place as their parents and grandparents, identities were more narrowly defined. People had fewer choices in who or what to become because their options were, in large part, dictated by the geography and culture of the place they were born, as well as by their social and economic status there.

但现在我们接触到令人难以置信的多样性的景观和思想，无论是生活在多民族社区，旅行到不同的国家，或只是从书籍、电视和互联网上了解其他文化。障碍正在被打破，文化差异正变得越来越模糊。所以，现在我们有这么多选择，“我是谁?”我应该成为什么样的人?的巨大变化。

我们都熟悉“美国梦”，这是一个非常强大的想法，它吸引了数以百万计的人从世界各地移民到美国。理论是，如果你足够努力，你可以成为任何你想成为的人。你可以为自己构建任何你想象的身份。毫无疑问，这是一个浪漫的想法。但这里的移民经历似乎有一些意义。如果你出生在一个特定的文化环境中，并且一生都只接触到那种文化，那么生活中就会有一些你可能永远都不知道的选择。但如果你搬到一个新地方，比如美国，那里有非常不同的机会，一片广阔的可能性向你敞开。你用新的眼光看世界，发现你可能从未见过的选择。这给了你很多以前没有过的选择。

Of course, the reality is that most immigrants who come to the US also face all sorts of challenges thatlimittheir choices too. For one, they have to figure out new relationships to the unfamiliar culture they find themselves in, and to the familiar culture of their forsaken homeland. How much of their old traditions should they hold onto, and how much should they let go of? Should they maintain a distinct ethnic or religious identity, or should they try to assimilate into "American culture" (whatever that is!)? And what should they want for their children who are growing up in a very different place?

Part of the problem with the rhetoric around the “American Dream” is that it gives the impression that it’s possible to justdecideto construct an identity for yourself, as if merely shifting geographical locations suddenly gives you magical abilities to change who you are as a person. The simplicity of the dream obscures the messiness of the reality.

移民不会来到一个充满无限可能的空间。想象一下一个受过良好教育、富裕的英国人移民到美国的经历。他在这里的经历将与一个没有受过教育的贫穷墨西哥妇女的经历大不相同。而且一旦他们来到这里，他们都无法控制别人对他们的看法。因此，向移民开放的“广阔的可能性地平线”听起来像小说。此外，每个移民如何应对他们的新环境取决于他们作为一个人已经是谁，而且，除非他们是作为一个孩子来到这里，这种身份可能是相当成熟的。So, the idea that you can justdecideto become whatever you want seems very unrealistic.

But that’s not to say that identities are fixed and immutable. I know from my own experience that moving to a faraway country can bring about radical transformation in the self. But the question remains whether changing location is either necessary or sufficient for such radical transformation. And, can wedecidewho to become in a new place, or is the new identity something that just happens to us? Which raises broader questions about place and identity. Are identities ever something we freely, autonomously choose, or are we just "thrown” into them, as Heidegger claimed? To what degree do place and culture shape or determine identity? And what happens when we lose our connection to place? Who do we become then?

Our guest this week is UC Berkeley’s Bharati Mukherjee, author ofMiss New Indiaand other novels that explore migration, alienation, and identity. Prof. Mukherjee was born and raised in India and came to the US as a young woman to study writing. She met and married an American man of Canadian origin, and since then has lived in both the US and Canada. She now makes the San Francisco Bay Area her home.

Photo byDaniel SchludionUnsplash