Chinese Culture Influence On American Culture

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!

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.

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 influence China is having on the United States is extraordinary. As America continues to drastically import and purchase from China, China is purchasing and investing in valuable American assets. Some of these assets include energy, entertainment, food, aviation, minerals, land and other businesses. Although we operate in a global economy, the positive short-term gains by American companies selling to foreign investors may lead to negative long-term consequences. Countries such as China are literally buying tangible assets on American soil. This trend could affect commercial prices, resources, supply and demand. When a foreign company or individual owns rights to assets in the Unites States, American citizens could be subject to their conditions. Americans could be at the mercy of market conditions set forth by an entity to whom we are directly competing with on a global scale. For better or worse, China has great influence on inflation, monetary policy and acquisition within our own borders.

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

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.

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

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.

Japan has the title of the “Land of the Rising Sun” not just because the sun rises in the east where Japan is located but also Japan had many obstacles and trials that they have come through that made their country rise and shine from darkness just like the sun. Japan came to a time of the Meiji Restoration where they have secluded their own country for 250 years to the history of the samurai and shogun that served and ruled Japan for so many years to the tremendous event of the bombing of Hiroshima by the US that struck and killed many people in Japan. As time passes by many cultures, religions, traditions and beliefs have been left by the ancestors of Japan. Cultures that even today is practiced and treasured by many Japanese. The cultures that cannot be simply remove from the souls of every Japanese because it reflects who they are and links it to their past.

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

The adoption of Western music inspired new ways of viewing music and resulted in a transformation of Chinese music. It prompted “Chinese composers to either fuse Western music with traditional sounds or turn their back on traditional Chinese music [because they Westernized] their music modeled on the perceptions that Western music equates with modernization” (Lau 90). Additionally, because many traditionalists feared that traditional Chinese music would gradually disappear due to the modernizing Western music, “they began to focus on promoting Chinese music as a way to counteract the encroachment of Western culture and music. But they did it in a 'modernist' rather than preservationist sort of way. Many musicians experimented with new ways of composing music and modernizing traditional instruments” (Lau 92).

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.

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.