We live in a globalizing world, a world of rapid transport, migration and mass media, a world of flux and change. Today identifying with a home, with your surroundings and a way of life, has grown increasingly complex. But as humans we produce culture of all kinds; national, local, religious, artistic and sub-cultures are hallmarks of our species. Culture and identity are two side of the same coin and they are inescapable. For as Marx put it, we are “social animals.”

The debate is strong in Europe. In Paris, capital of nation where anyone born there is officially French, race riots are a recent memory. The Swiss people have recently voted against the legality of building Islamic Minarets in their country while Italy has enforced a quota deeming on thirty percent of migrants may attend any given class. In the United States too, hardly a weeks passes without a comment regarding the color of President Obama’s skin.

In China the overwhelming majority of the 1.3 billion people are Han Chinese. Only a few showcase cities have a foreign population worthy of comment. But within China, peoples of different provinces, language groups and environments are on the move and this is causing cities to redefine their own cultural landscape. This is perhaps best explored by Christopher Lay in ‘Cultural Identity in a Flat Beijing’.

The Cantonese experience has been particularly altered. The Hong Kongers have had to define themselves under colonial rule followed by repatriation to the Mainland as well as contending with droves of migrants from Britain’s old colonies. This subject is dealt with quite personally by Chung Wah Chow in this month’s column. In his column, Elliot Brenchley takes up the mantle for his adopted home city of Guangzhou, where the Cantonese have dealt with foreign and domestic migration, and still somehow managed to sustain their language and traditions.

Finally Tom Bird will examine how, nearly a decade after 9/11, we remain a global culture defined by religious conflict. He argues that even the least religious are profoundly affected by such turmoil and may be provoked into redefining their cultural value system and altering the way they live their lives as a result.

Baicai welcomes you comrades and Baicai challenges you to consider your cultural identity. Because whether you’re defined by the music you listen to, the God you follow or the city you live, your cultural identity is doubtlessly as muddled and confused as it is crucial and essential to your world view.