The second generations of Chinese in America are also confused with their identity because they do not know their background and how they should behave
in the society. America as a place where they born and grow up influence their way of thinking, however the strong heritage of their Chinese culture pushes them
to obedient are contrast with the culture of American that give a freedom to each individual. Zhou gives another explanation about the children of immigrant,
Children of immigrant parentage lack meaningful connections to the sociocultural world from which their parents came. They are unlikely to
consider a foreign country as a point of reference, and are much more likely to evaluate themselves or be evaluated by others according to the
standards of their country of birth or the one in which they are being raised. However, these children constantly find themselves straddling two
sociocultural worlds
– Chinese versus American. This division is at the core of the head-on intergenerational conflicts within the Chinese
immigrant family Zhou, 2009:194. Those two different worlds lead the children to make a decision to choose
the process of acculturation to blend in the society. Their stance to choose their own acculturation strategy is needed to reduce the cultural conflicts around them.
The conflicts in the family are arising because of the different point of view in seeing the culture.
2. Review on Cultural Context
Chinese people highly praise the belief in norm, value and culture. On the other hand, America is a free country, people there likely to be free and do not
really stick to the norm. Those Chinese immigrants who move and live in America, most of them cannot blend in to the American culture. There are cross-
cultural differences between those two cultures. Zhou explains about the Chinese cultural context. She mentions that
In the Chinese cultural context, filial piety dictates parent-child relationship, the norm makes more demands on children. In the traditional
form, the child’s filial responsibility is the self interest to satisfy parental needs, whether these needs appropriate and rational or not Zhou, 2009:
194.
May Paomay Tung gives an example of intercultural comparison in Chinese and American point of view. Tung states that “moving out of the parental home before
one is married is looked upon as being selfish; visits less than once a week displease the parents; not living up to parental expectations is frowned upon
” Tung, 2000:10.
However, being Chinese American is not easy. They have two different cultures and values. In one side, they want to show their Americanized character,
but, the Chinese norms stick in their mind. Complaints and criticism of the parents are almost always accompanied by
guilty feelings and profound helplessness. The young do not want to “betray” the parents by bad-mouthing them Tung, 2000: 31.
Tung adds that the tendency in the inward-connected of the Chinese and the outward-moving position of Westerners can be expected to clash in intercultural
comparisons Tung, 2000:12. In here, Tung highlights the moving position in Chinese and Westerners, where those two different cultures are moving into
inward and outward will create a clash. That comparison gives a clear example of Chinese value in response to the western style.
Tung explains about the individual person in Chinese American context, about the-self in Chinese American. She mentions about the second generation
