What is Diversity?

Impressions of diversityfrom around the world.

In a country so full of diversity, you can travel from one neighborhood to the next & experience a completely new culture. Looking inside a ceramic store on Arab street, I was overtaken by the beautiful designs and colors. So much to see in one small space, like a sea of people walking the streets of Shanghai!

ARAB STREET, SINGAPORE

NICOLE STEPHENSONOakland, CA

This photo was taken in Shanghai, showing a group of foreign students playing Taiji led by a Chinese master. To me, diversity is more about people and culture. Shanghai is the most diversified city in my eyes, while Taiji (shadow-boxing) is a traditional Chinese “sport”. Nowadays, more and more young people from abroad are interested in Taiji. This integration between the traditional and the new, between China and the West, is a strong symbol of diversity to me.

SHANGHAI, CHINA

ERYN TUShanghai, China

India is a fascinating, culturally diverse country. India's languages, religions, foods, music, architecture, dance, dress, and customs differ from place to place within the country. My eyes were open to the beauty of this diversification during my first trip to India and these vibrant bangles being sold by a street vendor in Bangalore, to me, symbolize that rich diversity.

COMMERCIAL STREET, BANGALORE, INDIA

SARAH CINCOTTA Boston, MA

This photo was taken at the Kolding Train Station in Denmark. It is of my daughter and 3 of her classmates getting ready to head off on a school trip to the island of Bornholm. The interesting thing is that they are all part Danish, with at least one Danish parent, and yet they are diverse; both in the cultures of their parents as well as how they look. My daughter has an American mother and Danish father, one of her friend’s has two Danish parents but is not blonde (like the common Danish stereotype), one is part Danish-part Iranian, and another is part Danish-part British. I love that they are all so similar from a Danish cultural perspective and yet so diverse when looking at them from the outside.

KOLDING, DENMARK

VIKKI OLESENKolding, Denmark

“Fruit Tree” is one of 19 artworks featured in “Megacities Asia,” the Museum of Fine Arts exhibit that features work from artists who live in one of Asia’s megacities (cities with a population of more than 10 million people). The artwork struck me as diverse in shapes, sizes, colors, textures, tastes and reminded me of an experience in an Ecuadorian fruit market in Quito where I saw fruits I'd never knew existed.

BOSTON, MA, USA

MICHAEL GRETOBoston, MA

To me, London is one place that can be enjoyed by anyone, despite cultural, generational or any other kind of diversity. The city and it's surrounding neighborhoods have so much beauty to be enjoyed by anyone through it's diversity in culture, art, theatre, history, cuisine, music, dance and its people. This art installation on a street in Covent Garden symbolizes diversity to me, not only due to the variation in sizes and shape of each bird cage, but the artistic diversity found throughout Covent Garden and London itself.

COVENT GARDEN, LONDON

SARAH CINCOTTA Boston, MA

This photo was taken on a Sunday morning in a traditional Chinese garden park in Shanghai. There was a loudspeaker playing older slow American music, with couples ballroom dancing. It was such an odd sight - didn't seem to fit together, but somehow it did. A nice older gentlemen (with quite the moves) invited me to dance, much to the amusement of the bystanders. It was a beautiful moment of how music and dance can trascend generations and geographies.

SHANGHAI, CHINA

ADDIE JOHNSENBoston, MA

This photo is from our school’s annual cultural celebration night, where all the various cultural groups are represented by songs and dances. We live in a multicultural town, and our elementary school is very mixed. Children obviously notice skin color and speech pattern/language differences among one another. But when it comes to their play and interaction, these kids at such a young age don’t see one another as different. They just see another friend. I love the innocence of children and wish that we could all retain some of that as we age.

CHICAGO, IL, USA

JESSE ROWELLChicago, IL

No matter where you eat, shop, walk, or drive in New York City, you're guaranteed to see and interact with people from all over the world. I knew that Manhattan was considered a "melting pot", but the immense diversity didn't sink in until I visited the city for the first time and saw it for myself. The iconic Brooklyn Bridge, to me, represents that diversity when I think about all of the ethnicities of people who constructed it, who've traveled from afar to see it and who will cross it in the future.

NEW YORK, NY, USA

MICHELLEMASCARENHASBangalore, India

Our French-German-American sons Tim and Alex decided that our dwarf chicken flock needed to be “as diverse as the United Nations”. Like “teambuilding in the business world” the beginning was a little rough with no results (ie no eggs). Finally, “Anynymous” our one normal-sized chicken, “Baloo” our silk henn, “Sympa” our dutch and “Big Foot” our Bielefelder henns befriended eachother, chased worms together and demonstrated the power of diversity: daily, we had 1 gigantic egg (Anonymous), 2 ping-pong ball shaped ones (Sympa, Big Foot) and 1 pointed egg (Baloo).

PARIS, FRANCE

SIMONE-EVA REDRUPPParis, France

When I first arrived in Shanghai, I couldn't believe the sheer size of the city with building as far as the eye can see. Looking out at the Old city of Shanghai in contrast, with the new Shanghai towering over it, you can see how different the two cities are yet coexisting next to one another.

SHANGHAI, CHINA

NICOLE STEPHENSONOakland, CA