Floating Lanterns

August 12, 2021

Yesterday I found a twig of ugliness in a forest of beauty. Being human, I naturally chose to focus on the twig.

I was hiking in a redwood grove at the Sonoma coast with five companions on a sometimes foggy, sometimes sunny day. We had just come down the fairly steep Pomo Canyon trail, and were admiring the gorgeous forest with light streaming down through the towering redwood and bay trees, when I encountered my old friend Bill and his daughter Anne. I hadn’t seen them in years, so I told my hiking buddies that they could continue on without me for a bit while I reconnected with Bill and Anne.

I learned that Anne and her husband are co-owners of two popular Asian eateries in nearby Sebastopol. One of them, a new Thai restaurant called Khom Loi (Floating Lanterns), has received highly favorable reviews from the Michelin restaurant guide and other food critics. But Anne told me that a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle had scolded the two chef co-owners in her review, accusing them of “cultural appropriation.” Their culinary crime? They are white. How dare they presume to be familiar with a cuisine that doesn’t match their skin color?

I don’t have a lot of patience with political correctness, but living in the Bay Area one frequently encounters such narrow-mindedness and intolerance. Even so, I try to keep an open mind myself in order to understand where people with those beliefs are coming from.

The term “cultural appropriation” is a relatively recent phrase that refers to the use of images or aspects of cultures that are different from one’s own heritage. So according to this idea, it’s not a bad thing to appreciate different ways of life, but it is taboo to copy them. Anyone is free to enjoy food, music, dance, clothing, or language from other parts of the world, so this thinking goes, but only members of the original ethnic group are entitled to engage in the creation or practice of those traditions.

In a way, I can appreciate this argument. The intent is to respect the originality and positive traits of various peoples without stereotyping or offending them in the process of mimicking them. So while some individuals may not intend any disrespect when they wear blackface or dress up as American Indians on Halloween or wear a leprechaun get-up on St. Patrick’s Day, some members of those ethnicities feel that they’re being caricatured by those portrayals. It is important, therefore, that we do our best to be sensitive to one another in our cross cultural encounters.

Sometimes, though, we go too far in demanding that we not be offended. Some people argue that it is cultural appropriation for folks who live outside of India to practice yoga. Others insist that it’s only acceptable for black people to wear dreadlocks or corn rows, while ignoring the fact that by straightening and sometimes lightening their hair most black women are choosing white or Asian hairstyles. Should white and Asian women resent black women for copying their hair?

If you scroll down to one of my previous blog posts, Heavenly Dance, dated March 27, 2021, you’ll see that I celebrated a Chinese performance of Irish stepdance. Some would claim that it’s not cultural appropriation for Chinese people to copy Irish civilization, because by definition cultural appropriation only occurs when a dominant culture (white) exploits an oppressed culture (Chinese). But wait – the Chinese dominate and/or oppress the people of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibetans, Uighurs, and their neighbors in India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and elsewhere, and the Irish don’t dominate or oppress anyone.

Oh well – so much for politically correct racial stereotypes.

The reality is that, throughout history, humans have migrated, cultures have mutated, and people have adapted to changing circumstances. And now, with TV and the internet, societies and ethnicities are encountering one another and mixing with ever greater frequency. So who gets to decide what should or should not be allowed in cultural exchanges? Which cultural expressions belong to whom? Should we believe the culture warriors when they insist that we limit our freedom of expression to those forms that match our racial or religious identity?

Maybe we should take ourselves a little less seriously. Maybe instead of being cultural puritans, it’s OK to be human rather than being attached to labels of ethnic authenticity. Maybe it’s time to let go of our over-identification with our current incarnation.

When I googled Khom Loi (Floating Lanterns) I came up with this explanation:

It is good luck to release a sky lantern since it symbolizes your problems and worries floating away. The sky lantern ceremony has come to represent the releasing of one’s deepest fears and desires. It is a symbolic cleansing, a letting go of everything that troubles you. It is also the beginning of a new, enlightened you, with the light illuminating the path of knowledge and righteousness.

We are all floating lanterns, transient beings in the cosmos.

My advice to the Chronicle restaurant reviewer: Lighten up. And float away.

And I intend to check out the delicious Thai food made by white people at Khom Loi restaurant in Sebastopol.