As An Asian American Born Citizen, It Never Really Was

Through learning, families values, community relationships, and the willingness to achieve. Culture can be easily seen - the behavior of people – is the smallest part of culture. The greatest part, internal culture is inside people’s heads. It is our way of thinking and perceiving. Most importantly, it includes the values and beliefs unconsciously learned while growing up. The collision of two cultures as people come together causes us to become more aware of the differences and similarities between cultural values. By understanding the internal culture and significant values, we have a system to analyze and interpret behavior. People from around the globe bring their cultures here to American and institute them into society. Although, the United States is a culturally diverse society, there is a dominant culture and others give up their culture (depending upon where they may live) so they can fit into mainstream society. My family as other African American families changed their ways to fit into society hoping to become socially accepted because of not being members of the dominant culture. As with most societal trends, family values in all cultures are in constant motion; the list of American family values is always evolving. African

Many new arrivals still struggle to survive and often Chinese Americans still encounter suspicion and hostility. Chinese Americans have achieved great success and now, like so many others, they are stitching together a new American identity. As Michelle Ling, a young Chinese American, tells Bill Moyers in Program 3, “I get to compose my life one piece at a time, however I feel like it. Not to say that it’s not difficult and that there isn’t challenge all the time, but more than material wealth, you get to choose what you are, who you are.” (www.pbs.org)

Growing up as an Asian American, I often struggle to identify my own cultural identity. Being the first generation of both my mother and father’s side of the family, I more than often get confused between American and Asian culture when applying them to society or at home. While being raised at home, I am largely influenced by culture and traditions from Asian parents and relatives. However, when I go to school or someplace else, I am heavily judged for practicing part of my Asian culture because it is entirely different than western or American. With that being noted, I began to learn and adapt to the western culture in hopes of fitting with society as well of trying to keep my Asian culture intact. As can be seen, this situation I dealt with is the same problem the whole Asian American community faces. Mainly focusing on younger generations like me for example, the Asian American community struggles to adapt to the western culture because they were raised with an Asian influence. Wishing to fit in society and be part of the social norms, the Asian Americans community faces issues that identify their cultural identity.

I am a girl with two heads. At home, I wear my Chinese head, in school I wear my English head. Being an Asian, or Chinese, as it is commonly referred to, my culture plays a key role in the development of who I am and what I do, my personal identity. An identity is the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. Parents are often one of the key factors of this culturally developed personal identity.

First of all, I am a Taiwanese American from Dallas, but I’ve also been raised in several different places than where I come from, including China, Spain and the UK. Having lived in these places made me both culturally and socially diverse. On one hand, I’ve experienced different educational systems, food, languages and knowledge about different ways of living; on the other hand, I’ve learned how to quickly adjust into new environments and thus interact with people from all over the world.

With such status, some of them feel like they actually belong to the American’s society. Similar to Rosalyn Koo, my family keeps our own cultural norms and traditions while still sharing common national values and goals. In the podcast, Rosalyn Koo mentioned that she sometimes wore a Chinese traditional dress to work. Growing up in an immigrant household, I have always been exposed to the Cambodian tradition, culture and norms. My family made sure that I know about my family roots and my identity. However, they still recognize the importance of acquiring the culture and norms of the mainstream American’s society. After listening to the podcast, I realized that social class differences also affect the immigrant process of integration. Koo was able to integrate and achieve socioeconomic success faster than others because she has higher levels of education and proficiency in English. In addition, immigration status also influences peoples’ ability to integrate into the host country. As legal immigrants, my grandmother and mother had access to many different services such as health services and education. Because of this, they were able to integrate into the U.S. mainstream much faster than my

Essentially, every culture has a specific basis, native language, religion and custom that reflects its history, values and beliefs. These conceptual constructs represents the total reality of life within the community of which is commonly known as “Culture”. Culture is not only a race, but is a way of life. In the United States, there are many different races that integrate with the American race and culture. However, these individuals often times may have difficulties adjusting, adapting or maintaining their heritage. How well they acculturate and adapt to the process can have an impact on how well the individual is able to integrate or engage to one or another culture.

Some may ask what it means to be a part of a specific culture. It may be believed that it merely means to share the same qualities of race, language, and social beliefs. What is not really known are the rise of expectations to fill, repressed wants and needs, or even the binding religious beliefs. A person must begin to recognize the holdings a culture may have on them and how it affects their free will as an individual.

I am an Asian-American woman living and working in the global city of New York. Growing up in an international city allowed me to become a multicultural individual and develop into a young woman different from my counterparts in Asia and here in the United States as well. I was taught by my parents not only the values of a Chinese culture but also to strive to enhance my strengths and to go forth and establish a successful career in business while always relating back to my Chinese roots. These values of diligence, perseverance and selflessness influence my everyday work and personal life.

Culture plays a big part on how you are as a person. A person beliefs are made up by their own unique cultural identity. Identity is what makes you who you are as person, and how does it defines you. Your identity doesn’t have to be just your ethnicity or how you look like, it’s way much more than that. While my culture is mixed with American and Asian aspects, Asian culture is most influential in my life because it helps me be motivated in school, affect my views on religion, and makes me have good deportment.

The United States has Changed from a Melting Pot to a Vast Culture with Varying Racial Backgrounds

Are you Chinese or American? Were you born at LA, or in China? I am frequently asked this type of question. I am a Chinese American, born in the Tarzana Hospital, located in a suburb of LA. I am blessed to have the opportunity to live in a great country, where the population is diverse and people typically get along very well. But, I’m also proud to be in a intriguing and complicated part of family trees and genealogies. My family tree originated in China and the majority of my ancestors live there too; I am the first one to be born in the US.

The culture of Hong Kong has shaped my national identity to reject being recognized as Chinese. Often I am prompted to indicate my country of birth, although Hong Kong is not a country, I always put Hong Kong. I pride myself on being a

The “melting pot” culture refers to people from various cultures coming together to create a new unique culture. (Lorenzo, 2000) In other words, these cultures have ‘melted’ together in a ‘pot’. For example, Chinese, Koreans, Germans and more cultures blended in together to create a whole new American culture. They are not Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans or German-Americans anymore but just Americans. On the other hand, “salad bowl” culture refers to immigrants who do not lose the aspects of their cultures. . (Lorenzo, 2000) To put it in another way, you can still clearly see the different ‘ingredients’ in a ‘salad bowl’. As a contrast to the melting pot theory’s example, Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans and German-Americans will still keep the unique traits of their cultures while living together in the country. America has been traditionally referred to as a ‘melting pot’, but recently; there are people who argue that ‘salad bowl’ will be a better description of America’s society today.

“Traditional” refers to the societies or elements of societies that are small-scale, and derived from indigenous and often ancient cultural practices. Meanwhile, modern refers to those practices that relate to the industrial mode of production or the development of large-scale, often colonial societies(Traditional and Modern Societies: A Comparative Look). Individuals are often asked to put themselves in either a traditional or modern category. However, living in a world of two options often makes the choice multifaceted. Moreover, picking a category creates a society to divide into in- groups and out- groups, causing a new identity beyond the scope of ethnicity, to humankind. We often identify individuals by the color of their hair, skin and eye color. Yet, we have now seen cultures such as African and Jewish merge together, for a common purpose. The reasons, unlimited, yet, years ago we would have never thought this could occur, in society. Thus, we now see intercultural marriages emerging due to the individuals, both being spiritually connected, only separating their identity by genetic distinctions. Where do they fit in the ‘traditional and modern’ world? Individuals can be both, and therefore, there is no need to objectify one, for the sole purpose, of being labeled in one group.