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2. Different Beliefs
In Panhandle, boys do not beg, but fight. Mainly, most boys fight in the street. Street fighting was like menstruation for men, merely thinking about it did
not make it happen; the imagined result were frightening; and rationale for wanting to do it was less than clear p. 3. Thus, most Panhandle boys are fighting
there. Differently, in China, people believe in karma about one’s behaviors always
owned in later life and afterlife Xiao, 2001, p. 138. China has a unique way to respect karma
. Kai’s mother teaches him that fight can hurt karma, which makes Kai hardly accustomed to the way of the Panhandle kid
s’ life. The jam was that I felt that hurting people damaged my yuing chi, my
balanced karma. Panhandle kids described karma as, what go around, come around pp. 3-4.
It shows that the meaning of karma in Panhandle and China is different. Kai carries the Chinese belief about fighting and karma. He does not like fighting as
what he utters to his friend, Toussaint. “I do not like fight. Don’t think Mother wants me to fight. She says bad for
karma . What you think?” I asked. p. 95
3. Different Ways of Life
According to Jandt 2006, cultures that place high values on masculine trait stress assertiveness, competition, and material success p. 171. America is
one of those type of cultures. According to Rojjanaprapayon 1997 Masculinity in all cultures is not the same as Hofstede’s Western concept of masculinity as
assertiveness, aggressiveness, and goal orientation as cited in Jandt, 2006, p. 172. In addition, men solve conflicts by fighting and arguing. Panhandlers mean
their masculine through fighting.
39 Blacks, for more hundred years, had been fighting and bleeding under their
nation’s flag, hoping for a share of the fruits of victory. They had all the optimism of Dickens’s Mr. Micawber, with none of his chances p.14.
The reason why the kids in Panhandle fight is that it is how kids become a
man later on. Kai has Toussaint as his guidance to American boyhood. Toussaint tells Kai about the reason of fighting.
“Now, ain’t no mo’ dat,” he said, smiling. “We kin fights, like men.” He was speaking very seriously. Fighting was a measure of citizenship. Of
civilization. I didn’t think so p. 98. Due to Kai’s origin as a Chinese, accepting fighting as a part of culture is still
difficult. It is proved from the debate that occurs between Kai and Toussaint. Kai does not think that fight is used to measure the citizenship.
4. Different Languages
The geographical distance between Shanghai and Philadelphia describes all the differences in the world, including the language used. Hence, Edna as a
Philadelphia woman roles everyone in the house to speak in English. However Kai is lack of proficiency of speaking in English when he is plunged into
American culture, he needs to practice speaking in English. As a result, the different language mastery creates misunderstanding between Kai and his mother.
“When tsow mien?” I asked. I was requesting for noodles, the food of the gods.
“what is ‘sow men’?”. Tsow-
mien,” I said, louder. p. 58. From the conversation above, it can be concluded that he has a low performance
in speaking in English. In some conversations with Edna, he tries to communicate with her using lexical-borrowing and mixes the language and still with a bad
40 grammar. He fails to socialize with the other kids because of such language
problem. At first I thought I was being punished in a universal way for language
incompetence. Stepmother Edna hated my dialect, which was at the me- Tarzan level, and it was unmistakably clear how the neighborhood children
viewed my communication pattern p. 64.
Heine 2008 states that one of the best predictors of acculturative success is language ability p. 521. To be successfully integrated in the host culture he has
to master the language.
5. Different Interests
Panhandle kids are talking about fighting and sport for nearly a year. The different interest can be the cause of culture shock. When Kai finds the kids talk
about fighting and sport, he feels disappointed because he has different interest. He wants to talk about food and their mothers but no one talks about that.
I wanted to talk about food and hear their mothers. “Who ma’ fucken?” I asked.
“China Boy,” said one, tiredly. “Don be buttin in, fool. Don hurt yo mouf when ya’ll don know shit” p. 90.
The second interest is about sport. The kid in Panhandle play a ball and fight. They run, they jump, and they argue. Kai meets his first ball at age of seven.
Kai does not have pleasure to play it after the ball smack his face. The ball became my enemy and made me the Martin the kids already suspected me to be
p. 90. Thus, he experiences culture shock because of different interest.
6. Lack of Socialization
A child cannot learn the ways of socializing by being apart from people. Thus, socialization is a function of social interaction which allows to acquire other
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