Last weekend some of the international students and I decided to do something really Canadian. And what could be more Canadian than watching our local ice hockey team? So we bought our tickets and headed towards the huge arena, the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre, which has a capacity of 7,000 people. I was very exited, because all I knew about ice hockey was, that the puck has to get somehow into the net and that there will be really good fights.
When we took our seats, the ice hockey teams entered the arena. The players were called out particularly, which showed me that there is a great interest in playing ice hockey. Shortly before the opening whistle, the national anthem of Canada was sung. I was very surprised, because in Germany the national anthem is only sung when there are games against other countries. Everybody stood up and sang the anthem, so there was a very respectful atmosphere.
The moment we stood up gave me the opportunity to have a closer look at the audience. I could observe a great diversity, which I did not expect to see. There were men and women of different age and ethnicity, many families, couples and also people with their friends. This great diversity made me think about the multicultural society of British Columbia and I tried to find some statistics about British Columbia’s ethnic diversity. According to B.C. Stats (http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/pubs/immig/imm081sf.pdf), “Chinese represented the largest ethnic group in the B.C. population who reported a single ethnicity“ in 2006. This does not mean that in B.C. there are more Chinese people than people of a Caucasian heritage, but if responses that say that they have a single or multiple origins are taken together, people with an English ethnic origin represent the largest population in B.C. (ibid). I have always thought that people with an East Indian origin represent the major immigrant group here in Canada. This perception made me think about the term visible minorities and cultural or religious symbols, which function as group markers. Seeing somebody wearing a turban keeps more present in my mind than for example seeing Chinese people, even though the numbers of South Asian are according to the statistics less. This can be related to the situation in Germany. Women with headscarves are possibly more striking than other people and therefore one may think unconsciously of a higher representation in society. I think this is quite interesting, because at home I am used to women with headscarves and did never think about them as different or Other, but here in Canada I experienced another side. Discussing diaspora topics can be very helpful, because one is more aware of these unconsciously made assumptions and they make you think about stereotypes and categories.
At the end of the game, our team lost 4: 0. There were no fights so I was some kind of disappointed. But I learned that there actually are certain rules and it was a nice feeling being a part of a community and cheer for a team. This showed me the unifying character and importance of sports events and I will definitely attend another ice hockey game and perhaps we will win the next one. C’mon Heat!
