Who am I really?
Kids, the youth, even young adults navigate themselves through the complexity of life as they grow up. The path is quite rocky until they get to the point of understanding who they really are. It could be more confusing for anyone born in a new country whose parents still originate somewhere else. These people might experience a conflict in understanding their identity and ask more frequently - who am I, where do I belong and what am I - a Filipin@ or an Austrian? When am I European and at what point in my life am I Asian? To make it more visual, take a jigsaw puzzle. When you play, you usually have odd-shaped, interlocking, mosaicked pieces that need to be put together. Now using that example, if you want to understand yourself and your own identity, you must first put the puzzle together to see the whole picture. That is one of the goals of our anthology.
Pioneering book
The book’s editorial team is the Austrian-Filipino association Sentro ng Kultura at Wika ng Austria at Pilipinas. Sentro's work has dealt with the question of integrating young Filipinos and Filipinas and integrating the Austrian-Filipino community into the Austrian society for over a decade. Sentro is also a hub between Filipin@s and Austrians, as it works with Austrians on many projects. One of them is this book. The aim of this book is to present for the first time the lives of 2nd/3rd generation Austro-Filipinos, how the youth or young adults living in diaspora perceive their realities and reflect on their lives. Snapshots and stories tell of and by Austro-Filipin@s. The contributing authors live in Austria, Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the Philippines. The anthology does not offer a scientific publication, but rather a personal reflection with a scientific background told through the eyes of the authors.
The book consists of three main chapters and several sub-chapters written in English, German or Filipino, namely (1) People & Society, (2) Politics & Economy and (3) Culture, which guide the reader as a thread throughout the book. The question of identity plays an important role in all chapters, since the target group for this book is today's youth. The chapters of the authors are diverse: from the question why there are only a few Austro-Filipin@s scientists or experts in science, how matriarchal Filipin@ society really is, what political activism actually looks like, how the Filipino food heritage is perceived, the importance of mothers teaching their children Tagalog to how relevant pamahiins are to this day.
It is an honour to be supported by nine scientists from across continents - the University of Vienna, the Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Canberra, the University of Ateneo de Manila and the University of Santo Tomas. They help us position the book project as an important pioneering work. With this anthology, we try to discover how the 2nd / 3rd generations of Austrian Filipino society see politics and how they live their daily lives through cultural influences. This publication is particularly important as it also marks the 10th anniversary of Sentro.
For a fresh perspective of these generations, get hold of a copy when rolls off the press in 2021.