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Chinese Culture Essay

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Socialization
------ American Born Chinese Children under Chinese Culture

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, socialization is “the process of learning interpersonal and interactional skills that are in conformity with the values of one's society” (American Heritage). It is a process of learning culture. During socialization, children will acquire attitudes, norms, values, behaviors, personalities, etc. within agencies of socialization, which were described as “Agencies of socialization are structured groups or contexts within which significant processes of socialization occur.” according to the sociology terminology (Gidden 1). Socialization always begins very early in life. It starts from childhood and continues throughout …show more content…

According to Huabin Chen and William Lan, cultural and historical background will influence people’s behavior. The Chinese culture is more family-oriented. The family or society takes priority over values of the individuals. Chinese people have very strong family loyalty and cohesiveness (Chen 2). In China, Children at a very early age will be trained to be more responsible to the family. They become more likely to obey and respect their parents; otherwise, they will feel guilty of disgracing their families. What happens to Chinese immigrant families in USA? In the Youth Radio website, an ABC was interviewed and expressed her own feeling regarding to the identity. Christina, a teen ABC said: “What do you do when American values clash with the values of your family? If you please your parents, you’re unhappy, but if you don’t please them, they’re unhappy. You can’t win.” (Kwong 1). There are a lot of different norms, values, life styles, beliefs and language between the Chinese culture and American culture. So, many teen ABC’s always suffer the conflict from the Chinese traditional immigrant families as well as from American society. Also, one teen ABC told in Youth Radio that, “My parents don‘t really need to tell me what they want from me…I’ve instilled their Chinese values in myself. But my mind and heart are both Chinese and American, no labels necessary.” (Kwong 1).
Meanwhile, parents’ expectations will deeply influence

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