Essay About My Culture

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My parents unintentionally shaped part of my cultural identity. Their pursuits on culture answered some of my inquiries but raised more questions. The reason why I write “unintentionally” is that though they treasure culture, they do not teach me doctrines like “you need to value our precious culture” but rather let me form my own values. Furthermore, they do not have a lot of opportunities to instruct me even if they want to, because I have been studying in boarding schools since Sixth Grade. However, as a dedicated observer, I can grab the focal point from most events that are related to culture and link them up in order to have a comprehensive view of how culture affects our family life. As a result, although my parents do not lead me …show more content…

Knowing the treasure hidden in literature that I can take on for life, she made me practice writing and reciting the Analects of Confucius at a fairly young age (when I was 5). Thus, I learned the beauty of Chinese literature and was attracted to it easily. Literature has always been a reflection of culture. The more I read, the more I absorbed the values of ancient and modern authors, which has implicitly shaped my cultural beliefs. For instance, Laozi’s famous quote -“those who raise themselves on tiptoes cannot stand firm! Those who walk with leaping steps cannot travel far. Those who are complacent will not be enlightened. Those who are self-righteous will not be illuminated. Those who are assertive will not be honored. Those who make self-claims do not have ability” (as cited in Wen & Hwang, 2008, p264)-taught me the importance of humility and experience. Examples like that are countless in my study career. And I am not the only one who had this kind of experience. Almost all parents propel their children to read classics even if they do not know anything related to literature, because they follow what everyone else do. Thus, though some of my peers complained about being forced to recite classic readings, their values were still shaped unconsciously during this process of …show more content…

There are always stories being told which are beyond scientific explanations, but the ones I heard that stroke me most were the true stories experienced by my mom. My grandma always appears in my mom’s dreams after she passed away because my mom has a strong sentiment towards her. In one of her dreams long time ago, my mom saw my grandma leading her into a neighborhood, and she saw a sewer on the street. The next day, my parents went to buy an apartment in the same neighborhood that my mom had dreamed of, and she saw the exact sewer that she saw in her dream. It was a lot of those similar and seemingly trivial incidents that made me be in awe of the spiritual side of Chinese culture. Sometimes similar event would be reported in the non-mainstream news, but the credibility of these event were low. My classmates and I always share our stories with each other, with both suspicion and awe. But nonetheless, our parents have a huge impact on our believing of the mysterious part of Chinese culture because of their high plausibility to

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