My Cultural Identity

Born and raised in a traditional Chinese family, I always believe that I have to embrace my Asian identity so as to understand who I truly am. The process of us growing up is also a precious time to internalize the cultural norms and values. This cultural identity can bind us together within a society and make us feel like we are a social collective. If cultural identity is how we regard ourselves as a member of the certain community, individual identity is how we value ourselves as a person. We are in a time that one person can have several identities simultaneously. each of us has an individual way of seeing the world and interacting with others on our own concepts of self, or our own individual roles. The globalization strengthens the connection among people from all around the world, so our cultural identity is experiencing a shift, to the more diversified extend.

But among all of this, I feel like the identity of being a Chinese influence me the most in the cultural perspective. My Asian ethnicity and Chinese identity actually allow me to interpret plenty of things in a way different than many of my American friends. When we are discussing the social issues such as education and politics, many of them think Chinese system is compressive. It is true to certain extent, and I as an insider have deeper understanding towards those phenomena.

I regard my parents as ‘partial' Buddhists because they always said that they don’t believe in any form of religion, but they will go to the Buddhist temple from time to time. In fact, I realize that they just apply the Buddhist practice in reality. Be humble and forgiving, what comes around goes around, when helping others you are helping yourself… they are the role model of me and my brother, teaching us that love and respect are beyond the boundaries of nation and