The history makes a great influence to the Chinese to become so proud of their heritage. It also strengthens their belief to the culture and norm to respect
their ancient.
1. Review on Chinese Arrival in USA and the Social Context
The movement of Chinese people to America is a long history. Since 1848, the Chinese moved to California, the gold mountain for them. May Paomay
Tung in her Chinese Americans and Their Immigrant Parents tells the history of the Chinese movement to America. Tung explains that the thousands of Chinese
were recruited for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, then, by 1880, the population of Chinese people in America reached 105,000 Tung, 2000:
26. In her book, Tung explains that the Chinese were working long hours at
their jobs that were exhausting and physically dangerous because few white men were willing to perform such work, then, they were often subject to abuse, in
physical and verbal. In the 1882, The Exclusion Act was used to limit the Chinese in America. Thus, disrupted family life over several generations is a common
experience in Chinese-American families Tung, 2000: 27. The Chinese were discriminated at that moment. They lived in the China Town, created their own
residence and maintain the language and also the culture to make it still exist. As its history is so strong, the Chinese has a virtue that becomes their
standpoint. Tung describes about the virtue in Chinese as seen through the Mandarin word, the ultimate symbol for Chinese that has a deep meaning.
The ultimate symbol for Chinese interdependence is inherent in the word ren
, the highest virtue in the Chinese value system. The word is formed with “human” root and number “two,” 仁, and is therefore interpersonal
in nature. This word, not surprisingly, has no English equivalent. It embraces qualities of love in abroad and humanistic sense, benevolence,
compassion, and respect for others Tung, 2000: 13.
The Chinese is well known with their history and value. Every word in Chinese has its own meaning and it always related to each other. In here, the word
ren is symbol for Chinese interdependence as the value in the relation of human
being. Min Zhou in Contemporary Chinese America mentions that
“intergenerational relations in Chinese immigrant families are characterized by conflict, coping, and reconciliation
” Zhou, 2009: 187. Chinese people always keep their heritage and proud of that. However, the second generations are not
growing up in China and they lack of the history. They live in two worlds, stick for two different cultures. Again, Zhou mentions about the problems in immigrant
children, Like all other immigrant children, the children growing up in Chinese
immigrant families simultaneously and constantly encounter two different sociocultural worlds: the old world from which they attempt to distance
themselves, and mainstream American society, to which they aspire, and are also pushed, to assimilate Zhou, 2009: 187.
The quotation illustrates that the second generation mostly are in the crisis situation, they do not aware of their identity. The second generations are living in
two different cultures, the eastern culture where the norms are the thing that must be obeyed and the western culture where everyone is holding a freedom to make a
choice in their own life.
