| This ethnography explores how identity and new cultural forms are produced by Cambodian high school students in Toronto. It examines the issues of resistance, gender, and youth identity in relation to intergenerational conflict. Intergenerational conflicts over definitions of culture erupt when youth, as active producers of dynamic new cultural forms, come into conflict with adult Cambodians who have invented a static traditional Khmer culture based on an idealized, pre-1975 past in Cambodia.;A theoretical framework is presented which expands upon Scott's (1985) notion of everyday forms of resistance, and provides an analysis of youth resistance to traditional culture. This framework provides a context within which to understand intergenerational conflict between Cambodian youth and their parents. Acts of resistance by Cambodian youth are analyzed through a four-step process, including: passive resistance, active-passive resistance, active resistance, and rebellion. These acts of resistance allow young Cambodians to enter into dialectical relationships with their parents, through which they can shape new identities for themselves as Cambodian youth in contemporary Toronto. |
