To make one generalization about Asian grandparents pertaining to traditions and customs is impossible. Traditions vary significantly from country to country. Many customs remain in Asian immigrant families, but some are replaced as the immigrants are assimilated into their adopted cultures. To study psychological phenomena cross-culturally it is crucial to understand different family cultures throughout the world, and how these families relate to cultural features of societies. The older generation is vital in carrying on cultural features. Grandparents play numerous roles in the lives of their grandchildren, spoil, provide attention, and shower their grandchildren with gifts. Nevertheless, the most important roles of a grandparent go beyond the perks. Their most essential role they play is family historians, role models, and mentors. They provide a connection to history, importance of cultural legacy, identity of the family and oneself. In Japan and China, grandparents are very useful members in the household and help relieve a lot of stress from the parents. They are active in household errands as well as child rearing and care. Grandparents often take on the responsibility of teaching their grandchildren the native tongue and customs of their homelands (Thomas 1994). The older generations keep their status as householders until a certain age, which varied with the profession and other considerations, until they retired from active life. In the traditional multigenerational family, the grandfather gradually hands over his role as to his sons. At first, the grandfather hands over the monetary responsibilities of managing the family budget. After they have proven responsibility, he later allows the son to become ... ... middle of paper ... ...e in the flow of wealth. Leaving parents to invest in children and their education and grandparents loosing the control over the means of production and tradition. Education and its value is the key to wealth, power, and wisdom (Thomas 1994). The migration of the younger generations seeking these goals disrupts the intergenerational dialogue and interactions. However, the Asian population believes highly about education, traditions become altered and not celebrated as thoroughly due to the need to get back to gaining wealth. Holidays are missed, watching a child grow, important events, and financial burdens keep family away from each other. Luckily, technology has helped make these moments available in the palm of your hand. Nevertheless, experiencing a special event of a loved one in person, touches the spirit in a different way that is lifetime rewarding.
Chao, R. K. (1994). Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: Understanding chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training. Society for Research in Child Development, 65(4), 1111-1119.
Hayslip, B.,Jr, & Kaminski, P. L. (2005). Grandparents raising their grandchildren: A review of the literature and suggestions for practice. The Gerontologist, 45(2), 262-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211017012?accountid=13158
People of Filipino decent have a rich culture that emphasizes tradition and family; as well as allows for a political and sociocultural movement for Filipino immigrants in their new countries. Theme one focuses on the concept of culture and how Filipinos present themselves as a race. Although they reside in the United States, it was rare for most informants to identify themselves as Americans. Rather, they viewed their culture as being morally correct and righteous and American culture as deviant or aberrant. Explicitly, the issue with Filipinos in terms of American culture was their concept of family and the U.S. families’ lac k thereof. They argue that in their culture family is a dominant aspect that preaches assistance and care for one another. Additionally, they disagree with the ideology that American families have in terms they raise their children. Filipinos take care of their children and continue to offer them resources and shelter regardless of their age. Conversely, they believe that American parents lack in care for their children and ultimately get the same from them in return. Filipino culture also emphasizes gender roles and restrictions, particularly female gender. Females are expected to take on the role of the
The author, Amy Chua, portrays her opinionated argument that Chinese children are more Why Chinese Mothers are Superior Why Chinese Mothers are Superior successful because of the way they are brought up in her article, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior (2011)”. This theme is important because it compares and contrasts the tactics of Chinese mothers to Western mothers to strive for their children to be successful. This paper describes the three key arguments Chau (2011) ties into Ed124 and why Chinese parents act the way they do towards their children.
The main coping mechanism, then, became suppressing of the memories and emotions attached to the traumas of the Vietnam Wars. Their home served as the host of these demons, but the demons impacted parenting styles. Thi acknowledges that her parents taught her and her siblings many lessons, some intentional but others, quite the contrary. It was the “unintentional ones [that] came from their unexorcised demons and from the habits they formed over so many years of trying to survive;”(“The Best We Could Do,” 295) these lessons were indeed unintentional because just like the suppressed communication, they derived weak communication between the parents and the children. In Min Zhou’s article “Are Asians Becoming ‘White’?” she concludes by including a picture of a Vietnamese family celebrating the 1998 Lunar Year, looking happy. This happy family in the article is much like the Bui family because on the outside, they appeared happy, but inside their home and their hearts, a darkness
“Why Chinese mothers are superior” is an essay published in The Wall Street Journal in January 2011. It is written by Amu Chua, who is also the author of the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. In the essay deals with the ever controversial question of how to raise a child. How to make your kids grow up happy, strong and self-reliant. Different cultures have very different perspectives on upbringing and education, and in this essay Chua presents the Chinese parenting method. The essay caused a large stir, generating more than 4.000 comments on the webpage of The Wall Street Journal and around 100.000 comments on Facebook. The global debate that Amy Chua started is not surprising, since the Chinese way of raising children is very disciplinary and it places very high standards, since Chinese kids are stereotypically successful, as Chua also mentions in the very beginning: “They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it.” (p. 9 line 6)
Filial Piety, a term many Americans may not be familiar with, however the Asian culture is not only aware of, but filial piety is ingrained into Chinese culture. Filial Piety is considered to be the virtue of all virtues. This virtue is the endearing way to respect, remain loyal, care for and treat your parents. With one third of the Chinese culture being elderly, this value, filial piety, has an impact on their culture, especially as these elders near the end of life phase. The article written by Cary Stacy Smith and Li-Chung Hung PD explain different philosophies of the Chinese culture including this obligation and how it is deeply rooted with religious traditions. A question many researchers are asking; as the younger generation becomes more Americanized, will this tradition continue?
The type of parenting style used by parents may be determined by the parent’s own cultural heritage. As immigrants move to a new country, it will take time to learn the new culture and to be accustomed to their ways. Therefore, it would not be surprising if first generation immigrant parents place the hardest strain on their children. Since they have not yet been accustomed to American culture, they will be more likely to adhere to their traditional ways. Immigrants who have been in the country longer may have slowly compromised traditional views with new
In conclusion, Wu made us remember how important our grandparents no matter how different are we from each other. Also, I learned a lot from my grandparents, and some of things that I learned are that we should treat others with good manners and secondly, we shouldn’t blame others for things that we are uncertain they did it. What I learned from my grandfather made me owe both of my grandparents a lot. And off course one of the things that I and Wu share is that we miss our grandparents a lot and we hope to see them as soon as possible in the
In the article, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” Amy Chua writes about how to raise a child, focusing her analysis between the modes of childcare as per Western and Chinese cultural dictates respectively (Chua 408). Amy outlines several things that her children are not allowed to do including: watching television for inordinately long hours and even, taking sleepovers. Amy’s methods have been shown to be very strict and pedagogical, quite unlike those adopted in the Western communities. She believes that Western parents tend to be soft when dealing with their children and instead, only exert dedicated effort towards the attainment of their children’s goals, unlike the Chinese mothers (Chua 408). The article makes the reader think
Amy Chua, who is a professor at the Yale Law School in the United States of America, wrote the interesting article ‘Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior’. The article evolves around the many concerns that Amy Chua has with the western way of raising children. According to Amy Chua, western parents should do as she herself, and most other Chinese parents do, and raise their kids with strict rules and tough consequences if the children were to defy these rules. Amy Chua succeeded in raising two successful kids herself; in the article, she tells us how she did it.
The Vietnamese family is composed of the parents, all children, and their in-laws, the grandparents, the great-grandparents, and in some circumstances, uncles, aunts and their spouses, cousins, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. In other words, it might embrace up to six generations, with everybody who is related either by blood or marriage. There is always a strong feeling of attachment between the members of the same family in spite of the generation gap, which can be large or small. The elderly grandparents and parents are taken care of until they die (personal communication, July 26-29 2015).
Parenting in today’s society is extremely competitive. Raising children has become the new sport interest to the parents, and the success that the kids achieve in life is the gold medal. You see the articles in magazines, the websites online, and the ads on TV that promote the newest and greatest parenting methods used by mothers and father everywhere. The differences we see in parenting can differ from family to family, but the biggest contrast is between the different ethnicities of the world. How a Western mother raises her child may be completely different than that of a Chinese mother. These differences are the ones that are observed by author Amy Chua, as well as mothers who have read her works of literature.
They say grandparents, are the two most favorite people in the world to children. Grandparents are the main characters of your childhood, they are the ones that leave you with the most beautiful memories of your life. Some grandparent’s teach you a very valuable lesson of life, they teach you respect, hard work, family values, and unlimited love. They show you their love in many ways, they say I love you in words as well as actions. Grandparents are the ones that sometimes get you out of trouble and guide you to the correct path. They show you trust, a trust that cannot never be broken.
Important roles in the lives of children have been directly influenced by their grandparents more profoundly over the past few decades (Dunifon, 2013). As life expectancy extends, grandparents are able to instill their values in their grandchildren. Many researchers have focused on how influential grandparents can actually be within the caregiver role. Dunifon (2013) stated, that grandparents’ involvement when raising their grandchild occurs more commonly when no parent is present in the household, this commonly known as custodial grandparent families (Dunifon, 2013). Custodial grandparents also have many sources of strength.