Chinese Culture VS American Culture
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 one generation to the next.
Growing up in America we are taught to never settle for less, that we can do anything that we set our minds too, and when we grow up we can be anyone we want to be. After all we are the “home of the brave and the land of the free”, right? The Chinese are more set on if you are a girl you are too be the homemaker, and the men are too make the money doing physical labor. The story “I Answer to Elaine” concluded it all perfectly to me. “She continued to sign Father’s name. I threatened legal action: “That’s forgery! It’s not your name”. [Example from I Answer to Elaine] This shows that the Chinese believe that the men are dominate, head of the household, the only say so. In the American home mom and dad have a shared liability for the children and both set of parents go out into the work force. “A deep frustration set in. I was sickened by her statement’s implication for my future. I hated helplessness, believing it unique to her alone” [Example from I Answer to Elaine]. I feel like Elaine is frustrated with her mom because she knows because of her gender her mom doesn’t expect mush out of her other than to be a care giver. This has to be confusing to Elaine when she sees all over her American friends