Music has always been an important factor throughout my life, it helps me when I’m feeling down and gives me some type of relief. Because of this, it leaded me to take this course which ventured into different cultures and the music within them. I chose to go with the Brazilian and Chinese ensembles because they were the two cultures I was least familiar with. Growing up my family had friends who were born in brazil and would tell me stories of what it was like to live there, which has always had me interested in their culture. Also, while I was in high school I had a Chinese foreign exchange student live with me for an entire semester of school and she taught me things about her culture I would have never known if I hadn’t met her. Growing …show more content…
The capital of China is called Beijing. With a lot of people comes a lot of musical cultural. Chinese opera is very big throughout china and has been a strong to their culture for many generations. Some characteristic traits of a Chinese opera singer would be that they performed dressed in costumes and wear makeup while on stage. Opera singers are good at all the following: speaking, singing, dancing, miming, acting, and acrobatics. In these performances, there were usually a male, female, painted-face male, and a clown. Females were not usually used in the performances so males would play their roles. The instruments used in these plays were a small, two-string fiddle with a piercing timbre called the jinghu as well as another chordophone instrument called the pipa. Other instruments are including in the percussion section like the gongs, cymbals, and wooden clappers. The leaders of the performance use a drum called the a danpi gu. Another type of music in the Chinese culture would be the solo zheng style. The conservatory solo zheng style was predated and influenced by several important regional styles of solo sheng music in the 19th century. The zheng is related to other Asian board zither chordophones, which include the Japanese koto, the Korean kayagum, the Mongolian jatag, and the Vietnamese dan tranh. The oldest forms of the zheng were consisted of five silk strings attached on a bamboo body, and over time the zheng transformed into many modern forms. These new forms consisted of a wooden body that had sixteen strings attached instead of the original
It doesn’t matter what kind of ethnicity you are, or how you were brought up. Everyone is deeply rooted in their own culture. “Culture” has a different meaning to everyone. Comparing American culture to Chinese culture we will find many different meanings to the word “culture”. For example, we Americans are always looking for something bigger and better for our future, and the Chinese are content with a small reserved lifestyle with no intentions of changing it for something bigger. A culture is a way of life of a group of people-the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and are passed along by communication and imitation from
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of culture is “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group”. Every country has its specific culture and there are some obvious cultural universals between China and America. One example of such cultural universal is the directness of American versus the humbleness of the Chinese people. Another example would be the self independence of the young Americans versus the young Chinese who tend to depend on their parents. What I would like to cover are the holidays observed by United States and China, roles played in the family by husband and wife, parenting styles and conflict management.
Cultural differences are apparent from one group of people to another. Culture is based on many things that are passed on from one generation to the next. Most of the time people take for granted their language, beliefs, and values. When it comes the cultural differences of people there is no right or wrong. People should be aware of others culture and respect the differences that are between them. The United States and China are two very large countries that have cultures that are well known through out the world. There are many differences between the United States and China, but there are many contributing factors that shape the cultures of these two countries.
music. They felt that the 'Westernization of their music' would make it more modern. With the rise of popular music came a means of identification, and with that, regulations to control its effect on society as a whole. And finally, the blurring of boundaries between China and the rest of the world show the ever-changing nature of the music in China. Throughout China's modernization, as the country opened up to the West, the Chinese music scene slowly changed in terms of style, production,
Every time I come home from college, my family and I would go out to yumcha or, as directly translated from Cantonese, to “drink tea. However, drinking tea is only one component of yumcha. To yumcha is to converse with company over a meal of many small dishes and hot tea. Going yumcha is social activity brought to the United States by the people from the Guangdong region of China, also known as Cantonese people. When they immigrated to the United States, yumcha became an important tradition because it also enabled Cantonese parents to socialize their children into the Chinese culture through the language and social practices involved in the meal and the ritual and meaning surrounding the tea. However, to Chinese-Americans such as myself, going yumcha with native Chinese people also emphasized my American identity due to my food choices. Yet when I go yumcha with non-Chinese people, I become distinctly aware of my Chinese identity when they fail the language or rituals of this tradition. The only time when I do not feel alienated during yumcha is when I go with my other
American Lore is just like any other lore it has myths, legends, and fairy tales, but American lore shows the history of America and how we live today, with a twist to the story. With Legends, myths, and fairy tales it expresses the way americans think and how creative we can be to come up with these stories from things that could actually happen. Legends are based on historical facts Myths are based on religion and gods and goddesses. Fairy Tales are made believe not real, includes special creatures. Tall tales and legends are more based in American lore and is heavily based on history and the many traditional stories that are spread from generation to generation. American lore is based on, “power social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. Achievement which is a personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards . Hedonism pleasure or sensuous
1 in 6 adults residing in what was once among the most literate nations in the world have been deemed “functionally illiterate”. During the 1800s, over 90% of the former nations population could speak our native tongue. Currently, only about 0.2% of our population is fluent in the indigenous language. Welcome to Hawaiʻi!
The Chinese left their home in China to make their way to America. Most of them came from poor provinces in China such as Canton or now known as Guangzhou. Along with the Chinese came their different culture and different religions; like Buddhism, believed that life is filled with suffering only to be caused by desire and the only way to end this is through enlightenment. On the other hand, Taoism was another religion the Chinese believed in and this was based upon the writings of philosopher, Lao-Tzu. Beside from Buddhism and Taoism, According to the article,” Chinese Immigration in the United States,” the author states,” The majority of Chinese Americans could be characterized as practicing some forms of Buddhism or Taoism”(Chinese 1).
The Chinese Six Companies were six companies across the United States which played a major role in the Chinese prostitution and was a key organization for Chinese Americans in 1800s. They original main goal was to help the Chinese come from and return to China, help many corpses shipped them to China for burial and take care of the starving and elder. The Chinese Six Companies also attempted to discourage prostitution in the Chinese community and attempted to limit prostitution in America. Even though their main goal was to help out the Chinese, during the 1880s their outlook complete changed. These Chinese Six Companies saw the benefits of prostitution which they force encouraging and overseeing all the vices associated with the Chinese-American
Social media has grown into one of the most useful digital marketing tools for business owners and corporations and is designed to feed us information at a fast-moving speed. There are many advantages to this development as well as disadvantages. Information is easily obtainable, instant and causes credibility issues. It is important to know and understand all the benefits and disadvantages before using social media because it can alter how a person may use it.
Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint the cause of this unbalance in the active dismissal of Chinese mothers by their Chinese-American children.
Because they have a very different way of raising their children, as the article says most children feel a lack of support from their parents, and that’s when most of them may have a need to attend counseling but are afraid too. Asian’s would be an extremely difficult population for me to work with. They rarely agree that they need help, and I have a feeling that if I try to listen and understand them, they would think they don’t need to be here. And that is just my experience from those that I have met through out my life. Of course, not all have been like that, but it also depends if they were raised more with an American culture than a Asian culture.
The United States being the third largest country in the world, is one of the most culturally diverse countries. Every region of the world has influenced American culture, because American is a country that has many immigrants. But that doesn’t mean that Americans don’t have their own culture. There are many culture and traditions that began in, and by Americans; they have simply been passed on to other countries, just like Americans have taking many culture traditions from other countries. For example, Independence Day, the 4th of July. This celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution. Only one other country that did celebrate this holiday, was the Philippines. The Philippines did celebrate this holiday but, only
I had a Vietnamese friend in elementary school that had moved from Vietnam recently (about 12 or so years ago) that was probably my only close experience of Asian culture or Asian representation until middle school. I’m writing about him because my understanding of Asians really only came from a 9 - 10 year old boy’s unmoderated adventures through Asian-related online websites, his parents, and my parents view of their family. I really couldn’t understand much without my parents telling me what certain aspects of my friend’s family were about, which about half were very inappropriate for a 9 year old boy to be asking about.
This year is my forth year that I has been studying in the United State. I’m already used to the U.S. culture and the U.S. living style. So in general, I didn’t experience any culture shock after I got here. If I had any culture shock, it’s probably three years ago. I couldn’t remember any of them. However I do have some thoughts about the differences between the U.S. and China after four years of studying in the United States.