Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
I think I've mentioned before that Toronto, contrary to other cities being mentioned here, is very much about "out with the old, in with the new", as opposed to having newcomers add their own spice and flavour to transform what's already been created there over successive decades and centuries.
As a result what you get is more of an EPCOT-style culture that replicates stuff from all over the world (often quite well I might add) but that doesn't necessarily bring much that's truly new and unique to the global table.
(Note that I am not just talking about food here, though yes food is a great metaphor for what we're discussing.)
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It is really about out with the old though, or simply that "old Toronto" of the late 19th and early 20th century didn't build up as much distinct (from Anglo-Canadian culture or "WASP" culture), rather than having it and then choosing not to embrace it. After all, early 20th century Toronto was not especially showy and drawing attention to itself.
What would 21st century Toronto embracing say 1950s or 1930s Toronto culture look like? Embracing more Britishisms? I actually wouldn't mind if there was something about Toronto embracing aspects of British Canadian culture that existed pre 1960s and 70s, alongside what came after, but it seemed that that generation of British-descent Canadians in Toronto itself didn't choose to keep it alive among the next generation.
I mean, I feel like Montreal and NYC both have lots of early to mid-20th century stuff, which is what people seem to often refer to by having more "culture". After all, when we get to 19th century, 18th century culture, what are we talking about that's recognizably continuous to today. Does NYC embrace it's "New Amsterdam" Dutch culture of the 1600s anymore? Does New Orleans really embrace it's pre-Anglicized culture in ways that are not just tokenistic (and sometimes touristy) embraces of New France, relative to Montreal ? You can even feel like New Orleans' "French" feel almost feels touristy now and tokenistic but surely it harkens to something real in the past, even if dying out now. Toronto isn't the only place that breaks from its past, in this case, the more "British WASP past".
I'm wondering if there's something similar with say Australia. Mostly Anglo culture until the immigration waves made it more diverse. With Australia, you also get a questioning of "what is Australia's culture"? Early 20th century Aussies were expected to be more "British", but now it's embracing its more multicultural identity (though by far not as much as Canada).
Sydney's Opera House was built in the 1970s, not too similar to Toronto's CN Tower, so even Aussie cities' identities are similar in age to the bigger Anglo- Canadian ones.
I bring up African American culture of the late 20th century a bit in this thread to show that something that is "new" can still become a huge part of American culture. 90s hip hop and even much of African American culture this generation is a product of the 80s, 90s and 2000s, with past African American culture (eg. jazz, blues etc.) often embraced symbolically but no longer what contemporary African American culture, especially, music is like.
If African American culture can say what's the product of the last generation is legit a representation of what the cultures of the cities they inhabit are like (eg. the 90s Bay Area), why can't Torontonian culture, of the 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s, of the CN-Tower, multiculturalism, Raptors and Drake era?
Why does only stuff from the Art Deco age or Jazz age count but not the eras after it, for a city like Toronto's identity?
I don't think that an EPCOT-style comparison is that fair. Disney theme parks or Las Vegas-like spectacles are specifically constructed to appeal to tourists to show off something fake but constructed to look real or give suspension of disbelief. Jamaican Torontonians and Sri Lankan Torontonians' cultures aren't tourist attractions but genuine things brought over and lived among their local communities, whether or not tourists or hipsters pick it off or show it off. It's no different than what old school Italian Montrealers or Jewish New Yorkers were like, carrying their old country's style with them but planting and growing new roots, just a generation or two later, that's all.
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