Saturday, February 26, 2011

A Secret City Within The City(Subcultures)

By:Latifah Durham

There are subcultures all around, whether you notice or not. A subculture is a segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the pattern of the larger society.Basically, it can be thought as a culture existing within a larger, dominant culture. While trying to figure out what subculture to choose because there are so many, I narrowed it down to Chinatown.



Many people of subcultures often live by the dominant culture, but also at the same time doing and engaging in different  forms of behavior. While walking around Chinatown, I notice that the citizens that spend time there are very active in the dominant culture but I realize that having something that not everyone can't relate to is a good thing. I seen a lot of things that I would have never imagine. Living in Philly, when you think about food the first thing that comes to mind are cheesesteaks and pretzels, but in Chinatown, roasted duck and sushi are those things. I believe that this is a subculture because you can go right to 10 and Filbert and see the difference in trents and lifestlyes and how it is different from the outside community. Once you enter into Chinatown you instanly notice their unique peculair culture from the died ducks hanging from the windows, to the homeland artifacts that decorate the scenery. The streets of Chinatown came with an array of smells and sounds that you would never see or smell in the dominant culture.


Vietnam Restaurant, Great Meals Restaurants, Vietnamese, 221 N 11th St Philadelphia PA 19107

Chinese delacicies range from cow bronchial tubes served fried, turtle served within a soup, and bbq-ued duck. Some of these dining customs may seem bizarre to the dominant ideolgy but to the chinese culture these types of food are in fact their norms. If you are interested in knowing some of the common dishes found amongst this lively subculture check out this interesting menu.




In conclusion, I must say that doing this blog really open my eyes to see things from other people perspective. I now wonder how other people view my subcultures. Whether it is a sport team, religious beliefs, and/ or living community that all of these things makeup are dominant culture and give it that special whole feeling.





3 comments:

  1. I never really been to China Town and I have lived in Philadelphia my whole life, so after reading your blog I went to check out the site. Its like a little part of China in Philly. And I got to actually try some of the dishes, I only tried BBQ-Duck though which was okay. Awesome Post by the way

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  2. I've been to China Town and seen the many differences of our culture compared to theirs. The differences outway the similairties. The way of there dress is one that comes to mind. Like Latifah stated that Philly itself has its own culutre and food that comes with it as well, but places like China Town are very different.
    Something that is very similair is like New York. Jamician Queens has a different culture where the food is different, the language, and even the style of dress. Each state can have its own culture and subculture as well. There are more areas located in Philadelphia such as deep parts of Erie where the language is no more english and the food is alway pollo and rice.

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  3. chinatown is a culture in a subculture I think tradition is held high in the people of chinatown their culture is beautiful the traditionis filled with ancient culturethe resturants serve onlytraditional foods the shops sell ancient goods I think chinatown is great

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