It's All About You And Me: Faith

Richard Rodriguez article, “The Chinese in All of Us (1944)”, argues that many different cultures have contributed to making up the American culture. Rodriguez backs up this claim by sharing

One of the immediate things I learned in China was that I did not entirely understand my own values. Growing up in the United States, I felt the prosperity of wealth seemed greater than the qualities of love, humanity, and happiness. I questioned the value of money, whether it was the entry to the doors of contemptment, or if it is a barren dream waiting to be lived. As the frequent stops at restaurants became an ordinary occurrence on my family’s itinerary, I noticed the difference in cultural values. I saw people lose track of time because they invested their attention on each other, rather than checking their phone. I realized I should treasure my time spent with others, since nothing else ranks a greater superiority over living in the moment. Seeing people appreciate companionship showed me the values of love and happiness are derived from living actively and feeling important to others. Understanding cultural values has influenced my mindfulness to strive to live my life to the fullest while embodying the quality of awareness to who I am as a person and what I

Primary education, Supplemental tutoring, summer camps, secondary education, family activities, higher education, first full-time job, subsequent employment, present employment with the age of the person, present residence, second residences"(pp.336-340). He lets you look into the life of different people, some from upper-class families and some from lower class families. The reader can see for themselves that the way they are brought up, whether it is from and upper-class family or lower-class family, it affects them. It

In her article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” Amy Chua claims that children raised by Chinese mothers are more successful as they further their lives than children that are raised by Western parents. According to the author, Chinese parents' beliefs enable their kids to succeed because they learn in a strict, direct and strong environment. Chua described a study of 50 Western mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers that resulted in Chinese mothers believing that the academic success of their kids is the direct correlation of their good parenting skills.

China and America are the biggest countries as well as them both being most successful countries. They are both dominant in their culture. However, they differ in the way they communicate and they are group motivated. For instance, the American culture is viewed as being individual and about one’s independence, whereas Asian American’s have a strong family value and believe in collectively working together as a culture. Also, Asian American has one of the hardest work ethics and believe that hard work pays off.

     The focus of our group project is on Chinese Americans. We studied various aspects of their lives and the preservation of their culture in America. The Chinese American population is continually growing. In fact, in 1990, they were the largest group of Asians in the United States (Min 58). But living in America and adjusting to a new way of life is not easy. Many Chinese Americans have faced and continue to face much conflict between their Chinese and American identities. But many times, as they adapt to this new life, they are also able to preserve their Chinese culture and identity through various ways. We studied these things through the viewing of a movie called Joy Luck Club,

According to the American Psychological Association, “socioeconomic status encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security, and subjective perceptions of social status and social class” (APA). Therefore, socioeconomic class greatly influences health, education, and opportunities. In some instances, these influences can be positive while in other negative. In the graphic novel Persepolis we see the life of a young girl who grows up during the Islamic revolution. Throughout the graphic novel there many aspects that shine light on the main characters socioeconomic class and how she benefits from it. Likewise, in the short story Hands we see a major theme of socioeconomic class, however, in this case the author

All families want their children to be happy, healthy, and grow. Social classes make a difference in how parents go about meeting this goal. In Annette Lareau book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, she promotes middle class parents as concerted cultivation. Middle class parents encourage their children’s talents, opinions, and skills. For example, engaging their children in organized activities and closely monitoring children’s experiences in school. According to Lareau, middle class children gain an emerging sense of entitlement through this pattern of converted cultivation. This causes a focus on children’s individual development. There are signs that the middle class children gain advantages from the experience of concerted cultivation. However, the working class and poor children do not gain this advantage.

However, Chinese culture is more sensitive and interdependent to society. "Culture can be very important in shaping some fundamental aspects of the human mind," said study researcher Crotts & Erdmann (2000), a psychological professor at the University of Michigan. "This study is one example of a demonstration that culture can influence what appears to be a very deep part the human mind, something that happens automatically and continuously." Advantage is more obvious.

Determinism also shaped a child’s socioeconomic class based on whether or not they had family support. Children who came from a children’s home were not told the importance of education. They did not have a family to encourage them to study hard or supportive parents to make proud. That’s why the two children that came from the children’s home, Symon and Paul, were not motivated to move up in socioeconomic class. However Paul’s daughter Katy was the first person in her family to start attending University. This is most likely due to the fact that her parents stressed the importance of doing well in school and encouraged her to pursue a postsecondary education. Family support can significantly impact whether or not a child decides to pursue

The main differences between the U.S. and China in the national culture is individualism and long term orientation. Individualism on the other hand means that the individual is honest and take care of problems at hand and shows no fear of conflicts (Trompenaars, 1993). Long-term orientation for China is that they have patience, perseverance and a feeling of duty towards a larger good. The U.S. culture is individualism because they are more centered on individuals and when it comes to business, they are more outspoken, eloquent and are very effective communicators. The China culture is not as individualize as the U.S. because they are more centered on relationships and when it comes to business for them, they are quiet, reserved and clumsy

When looking to understand one’s culture in comparison to the dominant culture it is important to take into consideration a variety of cultural values. In comparing myself to the dominant culture in the United States I have found both similarities as well as differences between my worldviews and the majority worldview. In order to fully assess how I have come to acquire my worldviews it is important to look into contextual and circumstantial factors that have shaped me as an individual.

The United States has proved to be a prominent influence around the world whether or not it may have positively affected other countries. In some cases, the dependency of one allows for the growth of the other such as the instance of China. Although China stands as one of the biggest communist countries, statistics have shown that “China is 175.6% dependent on the U.S.” (Chang). Although both divergent from the other, the United States’ bilateral relationship with China is essential and necessary for their success and diplomacy.

Being born and raised in China, I chose to spend most of my past five years in an Alabaman high school by myself, and interestingly, despite that I am clearly more of a Chinese than an American, every time when I return to China for summer holiday, I found myself flabbergasted by virtually everything (I seem to only realize the cultural differences when I return to where I belong.) However, most of these surprises did not only remind me of the differences between U.S. and China, but also enabled me to keep myself up with the Chinese society and learn how I should adapt to the differences between cultures.

The American President Nixon's historic trip to China in February 1972 marked the beginning of a new era in Sino-American relations. For the first time since 1949, the two countries established high-level official contacts and transformed their relationship from confrontation to collaboration. Over the following twenty years, however, U.S.-China relations have experienced repeated cycles of progress, stalemate, and crisis, with the events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 the most recent and disruptive example.