The Surface of My Culture

In the Beginning...

I feel that culture is defined by the person’s surrounding and up bringing. I am of Chinese descent but, I am born and raised in America. My culture is a mix of both worlds. My mother and father raised me the best way they know how. My parents were born and raised in rural China and the came to America in 1982. They left China and came to the States in search of a better life. In China my parents were both farmers and coal mine workers. My parents came to the States and did not speak a word of English but managed to find work.

Soon after, I was born; I was the first in my family to be born in the United States of America. My family was a closed family. The only people we spoke to were member of the family household. The other children I played with were members of the family like my cousins and siblings. The first time I ever interacted with other people was the first or second day of Kindergarten. Also, I did not speak a work of English until I enter into the Paterson Public Schools.

When I enter the Public School System, it is where I felt that I begin to take in the American culture. In school was where I began to see that I was different. I was a minority upon minorities. I don’t really believe I ever fit in with my peers in my early school years. In school and from my peers is where I learned what was “hip” and what was not, how to act, and what to wear. During these years many different things were introduced to me. This is when I began to “act American” as my grandmother would put it.

Although, in my early years, I only interacted with my family, we were not really that family oriented. Somewhere along the line I lost bits and pieces of my Asian culture and made room for the American culture. The lost of culture I am referring to is my Chinese language, which I hardly ever use anymore and it is slowly slipping away. I began to do thing that is not expectable according to Chinese culture such as disrespecting my parents, getting involve with someone outside my race, and having children before I got married.

There is a word in Chinese, when used in a conversation, meaning these spoiled Americans Chinese. In which my mother’s family often calls me, my sister, and brother. This word is normally referred to the generation of Chinese children who is born in America. In the Chinese culture, we respect out elders and we are quite modest. As time go by, I see a lot of the American culture influencing the Chinese culture.



Although I only touch upon the American Chinese culture there is more layers to unfold in my culture.